12 Days Of Ikarishipping
by C-Chepi
Summary: Dawn Berlitz is at a loss due to the fact that she's scared that she won't make it back home in time for Christmas. Reggie, being the wonderful brother that he is, volunteers Paul Shinji to assist the girl on her journey back due to the fact that it will be quicker. 12 days until Christmas with a living storm cloud, how bad could it be! - Ikarishipping Christmas countdown
1. 12 Days to go

**Merry (pre?) Christmas guys! Let's consider this a count down for all you ikarishippers out there eh? Well, sit back and enjoy the adorableness that is ikari!**

"Twelve days…" A rather short, 15 year old sighed to herself as she scuffed her pink mid-calf boots along a concrete path in veil stone city. All around her, stores and houses had gotten their exteriors wrapped in Christmas lights and other various decorations.

She winced as a rather strong wind whipped her cobalt hair around her face and the sharp coldness slashed at her exposed skin. The bright lights of the city allowed the girl to see in the blackness of the night, unlike if she was camping out in the middle of a forest somewhere.

You see, the problem Miss Dawn Berlitz was currently facing was the fact that she was the entire region's width away from her home town; Twinleaf. She just wasn't going to be able to make it back home to her mother in time for Christmas, and that upset her greatly. The teen had been so caught up with the contests in the different areas of the Sinnoh region that she'd completely forgotten that her favourite holiday was right around the corner. Getting back to twinleaf just couldn't be done within the time she had.

The girl stopped outside the pokemon centre, undoing the first few buttons of her long white coat as a blast of warm air welcomed her inside. She shook her head, causing the beanie atop it to become slightly lopsided.

Nurse Joy gave her a tired, yet friendly smile as she made her way to the front desk. She noticed that a lot of people were just mulling around the lobby, each one looking a little irritated.

"Do you have a room for one spare?" Dawn asked brightly, despite the sour mood she was currently in.

"Sorry dear, I'm afraid we're all booked out for the night," the nurse answered, offering the bluenette an apologetic smile in return.

"Oh I see, thank you so much anyway," Dawn uttered with a small bow before re-entering the harshness of the outside world. The girl groaned, leaning back against the wall of the pokemon centre in defeat, closing her eyes.

"Of course they're full, it's just my luck," she grumbled to herself, rearranging the scarf wrapped around her neck.

"Well well," a familiar, cheery voice stated, causing the girl to open her eyes. She grinned up at the man standing before her; it was none other then Reggie, his purple hair tied in the usual messy pony tail and large black duffle coat wrapped cosily around his body.

"Fancy meeting you here Dawn, it's been years!" He exclaimed as Dawn grinned and graciously accepted his tight bear hug.

"Hi Reggie, it's so nice to see you!" She exclaimed happily, shivering slightly as he pulled away and the added warmth was snatched away from her. "How are you?"

"Oh not too bad… but what about you?! Standing outside like this, you're going to freeze to death!"

Dawn chuckled sheepishly.

"Well, there are no spare rooms in the centre so I suppose I should really go and find myself a hotel before they all run out as well." She explained.

"Nonsense! You can stay at ours for as long as needed!" Reggie declared.

"Well, I don't want to cause you any trouble…" Dawn began, however she was hushed by the older man and dragged a few streets down from where they were standing originally.

They soon arrived at a quaint little house by the outskirts of the city. The area wasn't very busy however this did not cause the enthusiasm for Christmas the city seemed to have to waver. Each and every house was decorated in brightly coloured lights which seemed to dance to an inaudible beat. Dawn couldn't help but smile, the spirit of Christmas was well and truly in the air.

"Um, Reggie is Paul in?" Dawn asked, taking note of the bright lights shining through an upstairs window.

"Ah yes, he arrived back from the Unova region yesterday," Reggie replied, fishing a key out of his pocket and unlocking the door.

"We're home," he called as he stepped into the house, stepping aside and allowing Dawn to enter as well. Unsurprisingly there was no reply from the human storm cloud, and Dawn had to try to prevent herself from breathing a sigh of relief as she knew it would be awkward with him around.

She politely removed her shoes and placed her coat on a stand by the door. She then followed Reggie into the living room, silently thanking Arceus for central heating and fire places.

"Who's we?" a gruff voiced asked as a purple haired boy entered the room. Reggie turned to smile at his younger brother and waved a hand towards the bluenette.

"Dawn's staying with us for a while," Reggie said happily, pulling his brother into the room and leaving the two teens on their own as he left.

"Um, hi," Dawn said awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head as she shuffled her feet on their light wooden floor.

"Who are you?" He asked monotonously, shoving his hands in his jean pockets.

"Dawn Berlitz… Ash Ketchum's travelling companion a few years back," She answered, the irritation evident in her tone as she aggressively crossed her arms over her chest. He watched her almost intently for a few moments before simply saying,

"Don't remember." Dawn scoffed, recalling their second meeting where he had said the exact same thing.

"Well you should, I sure remember you," she said bitterly while trying to suppress a blush. She realised The 17 year old had filled out rather nicely throughout the years and turned away so as not to make a fool out of herself. So what if he looked nice? The fact that he was a complete jerk hadn't changed a bit.

"Oh wait," he said suddenly, causing Dawn to turn around, hoping that maybe he had remembered. "You're that troublesome girl who travelled around with Pathetic and his pikachu a few years back."

"I AM NOT TROUBLESOME!" She yelled, her face turning red with rage as he merely smirked. Just as she was about to jump at him, nails at the ready, Reggie came back in with a big smile on his face and three sets of cutlery in hand.

"I see you two are getting along just wonderfully!" He said happily. Dawn gave him an incredulous look but didn't say anything as she was too grateful for his hospitality, despite the fact that she'd have to be living in the same house with none other than Paul Shinji for a night. She'd already decided that she'd be leaving as soon as possible.

"I trust you haven't eaten Dawn," Reggie said.

"No, I haven't,"

"Good! While the meal's being prepared can you show Dawn to her room and set the bed up please Paul?" He asked, turning to his younger brother.

"I'd rather not," Paul stated moodily. His attitude made the bluenette seriously want to tare his eyes out. He was being so rude!

"Paul," His brother said warningly, giving his brother a sharp look. The younger sibling sighed and turned to walk out of the door. Dawn had to hurry to keep up and stayed silent, for once not knowing how to strike up a conversation.

Paul entered a room at the far end of the landing. It was rather small and had an unmade single bed next to a window with a bed side table sitting to its left. A small wooden chair sat at the end of the room by a rather large dressing table.

The boy proceeded to remove bedding items from the wardrobe and started to make the bed. Dawn decided to help, however Paul gave her a look.

"What? I thought I'd be useful and help you,"

"I'm no where near as pathetic and weak as you, I'm pretty sure I can handle this on my own," he said, glaring at her.

"Fine then Mr. Grumpy pants, I just wanted to help," she huffed, her cheeks puffing out in annoyance as she retreated to the chair at the other side of the room.

"Let's eat!" Reggie and Dawn chorused joyfully as they began to chow down on the delicious chicken noodle soup Reggie had prepared for them.

"So, what brings you to Veil Stone?" The older man asked, ceasing his eating for the moment. Dawn groaned, her shoulders slumping in defeat before quickly straightening up and smiling again.

"I'd just finished a contest near lake valour and decided so I decided to visit veil stone since I haven't been here for ages!" She said cheerfully, deciding not to tell them about her worry of not getting back. She didn't want to burden them with her troubles.

"Aren't you a little way from home? And so near to Christmas too," Reggie stated causing the girl to wince. _Damn Reggie, why did you have to go and hit the nail right on the head?_ She asked herself bitterly. Sighing, Dawn explained everything.

"Well, truthfully I shouldn't have been going to that contest, I knew that it was near to Christmas but I didn't realise it was that close… I'd sort of lost track of time," She laughed nervously, feeling conscious about her stupidity.

"Idiot," Paul muttered, causing her to blush in shame. She decided to ignore him however.

"Well, now I'm never going to be able to make it back in time for Christmas," She sighed sadly.

"Cheer up Dawn, you look like a gloom who's having a bad day," Reggie stated before tapping his chin.

"Well yeah, I always celebrate Christmas with my mum, and this year I may not be able to do that. I've never, don't ever want to celebrate this holiday on my own! It's supposed to be a time with family, and because of my foolishness I'll never get back in time." She stated, resisting the tears which threatened to fall.

"I've got it!" Reggie exclaimed suddenly making the two teens jump.

"Paul's heading back toward Sandgem tomorrow to get back to Unova, he knows all of the short cuts and you'll be-"

"Absolutely not," the teen in question interrupted, glaring daggers at his brother. Reggie smiled sweetly.

"Please~" Reggie dragged on. Paul merely turned his head away in distain.

"Please baby brother, I know that deep down in that bottomless pit of a heart you have you really do care," he whined, getting up and latching himself onto his younger sibling. Paul grunted and furiously attempted to tare him off.

Dawn stifled a giggle as she watched the brothers struggling it out. The older Shinji rubbed his face lovingly on his brother's shirt, his hold not faltering as the younger tried desperately the free himself. Eventually, he slumped down in his seat with a sigh.

"Fine," he grumbled moodily, catching my gaze. "I'll take her,"

"Yay!" Reggie cheered, finally letting go and lovingly ruffling his brother's hair.

Dawn smiled warmly, she could tell that despite the barrier of ice Paul appeared to be surrounded by constantly, his brother loved him so dearly and that love was returned back, he just didn't like to show it.

"Hold on," she said suddenly, "what about you guys? Don't you spend Christmas together?"

"Well, that just depends," Reggie said almost wistfully, "he usually comes back for a few days before and we exchange presents before he goes off again,"

"I don't see any point in celebrating such a useless event. There really is no point to it, it is merely just another day of the year," Paul added, he face showing no signs of emotion.

Dawn stared at the boy in disbelief, never had she heard anyone disregard Christmas as just another day, it was a time for joy and fun, a time where everyone enjoyed themselves to the fullest.

"Besides, Reggie enjoys spending it with Maylene, don't you?" he said, smirking evilly over at his brother whose face had turned the colour of the red in the holly which decorated their mantle piece. Dawn giggled, recalling the fondness the two seemed to share for each other when she last saw them.

"So, when did you guys become a thing?!" squealed, clapping her hands together enthusiastically. Fangirl mode activated. Paul winced and Reggie blushed an even darker shade of red as he slid down his chair.

"I think I'm rather tired now you two, don't stay up too late, I'll see you in the morning!" He said hurriedly, collecting his now empty bowl and pelting out of the room.

"I'll never understand… love is so stupid," Paul muttered more to himself than the girl to his left.

"Love's such a beautiful thing Paul, when two people feels so strongly about one another…" she clasped her hands together in wonder, her blue orbs practically sparkling.

"You would say something like that," Paul muttered, his eyes rolling in an almost scolding way.

"Oh yeah, and what's that supposed to mean?!" Dawn growled, a dangerous aura surrounding her as she glared at the boy.

"Troublesome," he merely stated, picking up his bowl and heading out of the room.

"What a jerk…" Dawn grumbled, collecting her things and hurrying after him due to the face that she had no idea where their kitchen.

"I suggest that you go to bed now too, we have to set out early tomorrow, and if you're not up, I'll be leaving without you." And with that, Paul had headed upstairs and entered his own room. Dawn sighed, making her way up to her own room.

"Pip-piplup!" The penguin pokemon called as it was released from its pokeball.

"We're at Reggie and Paul's house Piplup, Paul's going to take us back home in time for Christmas," Dawn explained, packing her clothes back into her bag as she dusted off her fluffy pink pyjamas. Piplup lifted his beak into the air with distain.

"Lup," he stated, slippers on hips. Dawn giggled, reaching down to lift him up and give him a big hug.

"I know how you feel, I'm not entirely thrilled to have _Paul_ of all people take me home, but apparently he knows shortcuts and all that so he should be able to get us home within the twelve days we have left." _Hopefully_ she thought to herself.

Sighing, she turned the bedside light off and clambered into the bed which Paul had made for her. She shut her eyes, worry enveloping her as she subconsciously squeezed Piplup tightly. _What if I don't get back in time? What if we end up arguing so much he leaves me somewhere?! What if… What if…_ All these thoughts swirled around in her mind as the dark blanket enveloped her in its welcoming arms.

Sadly her dreams weren't as welcoming as they consisted of her mother sitting at home all alone on Christmas day, crying her eyes out due to the abandonment of her daughter.

 **I hope you all liked it! I know I'm going to have fun writing these, I absolutely love Christmas so much, in my opinion it's the best time of the year! I just become so happy and carefree around this time and everything is just so pretty with all the decorations. The traditional music... Everyone is just so happy and ugh I just love it! I also love ikarishipping so this is going to be so exciting, I could so so much with them and Christmas xD But seriously, who else can see Paul as a guy who just dismisses christmas almost entirely? Dawn's gonna need to change that I reckon.**

 **~X-Ray**


	2. 11 Days to go

**Well, here you go, the second chapter. I realise that there's currently 9 days left where I am, due to it being 3am heh. I need sleep .-. I'll have to write two chapters tomorrow.**

 _11 days to go._

Dawn yanked the covers back over her head, hissing in discomfort as the brightness of the early morning sun so rudely awoke her. She suddenly felt the warmth drain from her small body as the covers she was so soundly resting in were cruelly ripped away from her grasp.

"What?!" She moaned sleepily, curling up in a ball and finding the comfort of her little penguin pokemon as it too snuggled closer to her.

"Get up!" Growled a voice harshly as her shoulder began to be violently shaken.

"I'm up, I'm up!" She mumbled, slowly sitting up and cracking an eye open to examine the unwanted visitor. He was wearing a thick green jumper with red Christmas trees decorating the sleeves and torso. Dawn snorted, pointing accusingly to the clothing item Paul was wearing.

"Reggie made me wear it for pyjamas…" he muttered, turning his head away. "And I was about to change." Dawn shook her head, her laughter causing her shoulders to quiver as she clutched her stomach. Piplup grouchily woke up, glared at his sapphire haired trainer and sent a harsh bubble beam to her face.

Now it was Paul's turn to laugh, he smirked spitefully at her as the bluenette's eyes widened from the shock of suddenly being drenched to the bone. She shivered, the coldness of the morning settling in.

"PIPLUP!" She yelled angrily, snatching the pokeball up from the bedside table and returning the stubborn pokemon.

"Stupid…" she muttered, shivering yet again. Paul let out an irritated sigh and folded his arms.

"Hurry up, we leave in an hour," he stated, turning back and heading out of the door.

"AN HOUR?!" Dawn screeched, leaping out of the bed and snatching her dry clothes from the yellow backpack lying on the floor.

Surprisingly, only minutes later, the bluenette was dressed and headed down the cold wooden stairs of the Shinji household.

Reggie appeared to have not gotten up yet, however it wasn't surprising as it was only six in the morning.

"You wouldn't by any chance have a spare towel that I could use would you?" She asked Paul sheepishly, finding him making breakfast in the kitchen. She yelped as a large towel was thrown roughly at her face. "Thanks," she muttered after overcoming the initial shock. "Though you could have just given it to me," she added moodily.

Paul let out an irritated 'hn' as he buttered the four slices of toast he had laid out on the counter.

"Just be thankful that I took the time to get you a towel out of the cupboard upstairs after seeing your pathetic pokemon attack you," she grunted after a few seconds. Dawn decided to ignore him and took note of what he was making.

"That's a lot of toast," she mused, trying to strike up some sort of conversation. The attempt proved futile however as Paul gave her a 'shut up I don't care what you have to say' look.

He eventually finished and handed her two of the slices which he'd placed onto a plate and she thanked him before they ate their breakfast in silence.

"Shouldn't we at least let Reggie know we're going?" She asked with a frown as Paul unlocked the front door and stepped into the snow clad city outside.

"He knows where we're going," Paul said simply, beginning to walk down the street.

"Well, hold up a second," Dawn called, rummaging around in her backpack and finding a notepad and pen. She hurriedly scribbled down a thank you and goodbye letter to Reggie and sprinted inside to lay it on the table for him to find.

By this time Paul was already turning a corner and Dawn let out a distressed cry before crashing down to road and finally slowing down once she'd caught up.

A few hours later, the pair had just entered the forest between Veilstone and Solaceon city.

"So, your shortcuts are completely skipping the routes and all civilization…" Dawn said, the unease evident in her voice. When Paul didn't make any indication he was going to respond, she continued. "Isn't it dangerous in there?!"

When there was yet again, no reply, the girl huffily crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks out in annoyance.

"You're so antisocial, you know that?" She muttered grumpily, making sure there was an adequate amount of space between the two. She'd come to the conclusion that she royally disliked this boy; he was always putting her in a bad mood.

"You could at least say something," she grumbled.

"Just shut up," Paul growled in return, causing Dawn to stick her tongue childishly out as she glared at the back of his head, wishing that her gaze alone could make it burst into flames.

After a while, Paul stopped and waited for Dawn to catch up to him.

"Stay close, you'll probably end up getting lost otherwise." He stated without so much as glancing at her.

"And what's that supposed to mean?!" She hissed, resisting the urge to slap him. As always, he merely grunted in response and continued walking.

For what seemed like hours they just continued to walk, little to no conversation happening between the two as Dawn made the occasional comment about something. Mainly a complaint about how quiet it was and that she'd wish Paul would talk to her.

"Can't we just have a little rest?" Dawn whined after a while. Her feet were beginning to grow sore and she was lagging behind. Her stomach had also complained about the lack of food it was currently obtaining.

There was no reply as Paul just continued on.

"Please…" Dawn begged again, dragging her feet for extra effect. Still no reply.

"Paul," she dragged on, "please, I'm so hungry and my feet are killing me!"

Finally, the boy sighed a long sigh and ceased his long strides.

"We have 11 days to get to Twinleaf town. Do you not want to get back in time?" He asked harshly, turning to glare at her. Dawn looked at her feet shamefully. Yes, she really wanted to see her mother so very desperately however, her health the matter at stake here.

"I do, but I don't think I'll be able to walk much farther…" She sighed, hanging her head and refusing to look the other person in the eye. "Besides, it'll only be for a few minutes!" She pleaded.

Paul groaned but none the less, walked over to a near by tree and sat down resting his back on its trunk.

"Thank goodness," Dawn sighed in relief, rushing over and sitting next to her companion.

"Here," he grunted, removing two packets of chips from his bag. Dawn smiled thankfully and took hers, munching on the tasty snack mercilessly. Paul watched in amusement as she greedily consumed the chips.

"What?" She asked eventually, noticing the pair of grey eyes staring at her.

"Nothing," He smirked, "except the fact that you eat like a grumpig who's been starved for 2 months."

Dawn turned to glare at him, abandoning her food to give Paul a hard punch to the shoulder. He seemed unfazed and shook his head, beginning to eat his own. The two sat for a few minutes later, Paul eventually turned to look at Dawn, her eyes were closed and breathing shallow. The boy sighed in annoyance and stood up, beginning to walk away.

With a yawn, Dawn managed to open her bleary eyes. She looked around in confusion, wondering where in the hell she was for a few moments. Once she'd realised that she was walking through a forest way away from any sign of human life, her first thoughts where; _where's Paul gone?!_

In a panic, the girl rushed to her feet, walking around the surrounding area to see if she could spot the trainer. It was useless, he was gone. Away from where they were resting. The worst part of it was, Dawn had no idea where she was.

 _He wouldn't just leave me here… would he?_ She asked herself. _No one's that mean right? Not even him, I'm sure of it!_ She said assertively. _Maybe if I just wait here, he'll come back!_

Sighing, the bluenette sat back down against the trunk they were at originally. She noted the swirling grey clouds in the little sky she could see through the canopy of leaves above her and pulled her knees up to her chin, watching the area in front of her expectantly.

About an hour passed and there was still no sign of the boy with the purple hair. Dawn was beginning to lose hope as she paced around worriedly. The first few snow flakes glided gently down to the earth around that moment, Dawn looked up and groaned.

The snowfall began to grow heavy and the bluenette was becoming colder and colder. She once again slid down the trunk of the tree and put her head in her hands. _This is it… This is how I'm going to die. All because a stupid jerk left me in the middle of some forest all alone to freeze to death._ She thought to herself mournfully.

"You troublesome…" she heard someone mutter after a while. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a blur standing over her. She felt someone pull her to her feet and place something very warm around her body.

As her eyes adjusted, she realised that Paul had placed his jacket over her shoulders, the heat from it warming her up considerably. Her cheeks flushed and she looked away, then realised that it was his fault she'd been all alone for ages.

"What the hell Paul?!" She yelled, stomping her foot angrily, "Why'd you do and leave me?!" Paul rolled his eyes and pointed over to her bag where a letter was obviously attached.

"I wrote a letter telling you to follow the marked trees when you woke up and that I'd have moved forward, finding us a place to camp for the night!" He retorted, folding his arms angrily. Dawn glared back at up the taller figure, also crossing her arms.

"If you'd used that brain of yours even slightly, you'd have been sitting by a fire right now. You could have at least used your pokemon to warm you up! But because you're so stupid, you just decided to sit and freeze to death!" He roared, causing Dawn to cower. His words hurt her and she'd never seen him this angry, he was usually pretty calm and collected.

She looked away, trying to prevent her eyes from filling with tears. _I suppose I could have used my pokemon…_ She muttered bitterly to herself. Suddenly, Paul grabbed her wrist and pulled her forcefully through the trees.

"Ow, Paul it hurts!" She exclaimed, trying to break free of his strong grip, however the boy paid her no heed, continuing to drag her along behind him. "Paul!" She cried out again, tears finally beginning to flow down her cheeks.

He stopped and let go all at once, swiftly turning to face her, a frown printed onto his face. She still refused to look him in the eyes and covered her face with the sleeves of Paul's jacket, due to the fact that it was much too long for her arms.

"Get on," he sighed, turning back around with his back to her. At first she was confused but she soon understood. Sniffing, she hauled herself onto the boys back and they quickly made it to the place Paul had put up a tent and lit a fire.

"I'm sorry, I should have known that someone as pathetic as you wouldn't have found that letter," He muttered after they'd sat down at opposite sides of the fire. Dawn was shocked, she never expected Paul to apologise, despite the insult at the end of the sentence.

"Well… I'm sorry too," she said awkwardly, looking down at her lap. She'd returned the jacket to its rightful owner once they'd arrived back at the camp. She did own a coat of her own, it was the long white one she'd warn the day previously, however, due to the fact she'd merely been sitting still for the majority of the time, she'd had no warmth running through her body.

"I suppose I won't be able to leave you alone will I?" Paul stated, watching her from across the fire. Dawn smiled slightly, finally returning his gaze.

"Please look after me," she said sweetly, realising that maybe their relationship was finally improving.

 **Took me a while to write this one, I hope you enjoyed it ^^**

 **~X-Ray**


	3. 10 Days to go

_10 days to go._

"Paul, why don't you like Christmas?" Dawn asked curiously, giving her companion a sidelong glance.

"Because I don't," he replied simply, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. The forest had become completely covered with snow from the time it began the previous day, making the surrounding area look kind of magical.

"But why?" She pressed, "There has to be some legitimate reason for it, I mean, a person can't _just_ hate Christmas! It's such a happy time of the year!"

"Hn,"

Dawn sighed, puffing her cheeks up moodily. She was still trying to get used to these very short answers and mere grunts Paul tended to give while answering a question. The girl was, after all, an extremely sociable person and greatly enjoyed interacting with others. Paul was a very difficult case though as he made it very hard for even her to keep a conversation going. He was the complete polar opposite to her.

"Why can't you just talk to me properly?" She whined, poking the boy in the arm.

"Because, I don't like talking to troublesome girls," Paul answered with a roll of his eyes.

"I am _not_ troublesome!" Dawn demurred through gritted teeth, getting awfully tired of this almost 'pet name' he'd come up with for her. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up again.

"You know, I've decided that by the end of out 'journey', I'm going to make you appreciate Christmas!" She proclaimed, placing her hands on her hips in determination.

"Ha, I'd like to see you try," Paul sneered, turning to look at her with a smirk. Dawn stuck her tongue out in return and much to the boy's confusion, she suddenly began to dash ahead of him.

"Troublesome!" He called once she'd disappeared from his sight, "Come back, you'll get lost again and I really don't want to have to deal with that." The gentle whoosh of the wind was his only reply as he continued walking in her direction. Thankfully, the snow provided a trail for Paul as her small footprints indicated the place she'd run off to.

"Stop being childish, you're not six anymore," he accused grumpily. The footprints came to a halt a little while off, causing Paul to frown in confusion. "What are you doing?" He sighed, looking around the area for any sign of the bluenette.

"Take this!" He heard her yell from above him before something cold forcefully landed atop his head.

"What the..?" he muttered, looking up on to find the girl sitting on a branch in the tree above him A victorious smirk was planted on her face as she began to gather up the snow around her, compacting it into a sphere shape. _She threw a snowball at me_. Paul realised, rolling his eyes.

"Get down from there before you fall," he called up, bracing himself as she threw the newly made snowball down at him.

"No!" She chirped, grinning at him.

"We don't have time for this," Paul grumbled, receiving yet another ball of snow to the head. He let out a frustrated growl and began to climb the tree which Dawn was perched upon.

"Sure we have time; we could just have a snowball fight as we're travelling!" She said in a sing song voice, pelting the poor boy with yet another ball. Once he'd reached her branch, Dawn let out a mischievous giggle and leaped down, landing on her feet, much to both of their surprise.

She grinned up at him victoriously and gathered up as much snow as possible, she then rushed off yet again, causing Paul to growl and jump down, barrelling through the forest in hot pursuit of his attacker.

After a few more shots to the chest, Paul had snapped. He stopped to create his own ammo and began pelting snowballs left right and centre at the bluenette in front of him, much to her delight. "Piplup, Lopunny, spotlight!" Dawn called out eventually, removing two pokeballs from her backpack.

Paul had eventually begun to overpower her and she needed backup. The two pokemon understood almost immediately. Piplup rolled the snow up into small spheres while Lopunny used her powerful ears to bombard the enemy with them.

"Cheater!" Paul yelled from behind the cover of a large tree.

"What? Can't handle a 'pathetic' girl and her 'weak' pokemon?" Dawn teased.

"Troublesome…" Paul grumbled to himself through gritted teeth. He then chucked two of his own pokeballs into the air, releasing Ursaring and Weavile from their red capsules. The two pokemon were surprised to find that they'd been called out for a different kind of battle.

"Consider this training," Paul said to them. They nodded in return and Weavile stealthily made his way out from their hiding spot while Ursaring used sheer force to get through the barrage of snow. While the girl and her pokemon tried to fight off his own, Paul cautiously made his way over to the girl, getting passed the Lopunny and Piplup and tackling her to the ground.

She let out a small yelp as she tried to struggle from Paul's iron grip however she was giggling too much and he was too strong for her to escape. He eventually let go of her arms, still pinning her to the ground however with his legs. He gathered up a large pile of snow and smirked as she looked on in horror, realising what he was about to do.

He let go of it as he held it above her face and quickly leaped off of her, looking in the direction of where the four pokemon were battling it out. A wide, triumphant grin spread across his face as he realised that his pokemon had disabled her own, although he covered up his joy with the emotionless mask he always wore before anyone could see. Too late.

"I saw that," Dawn said with a smirk, running her hands through her sapphire locks and removing the last of the white powder. "You were having fun weren't you?" She proclaimed with a grin.

"Tch, I'm just glad we made a lot of progress due to the fact we were running most of the way," he stated, turning his head away from her stubbornly.

"Sure," Dawn giggled, returning her two pokemon. Paul followed suit, shaking his head at the girl before him. He'd had the most fun today he'd had in a long time, although he'd never admit it to either himself or the girl. Dawn shivered; the adrenaline finally ceasing and the cold of the melted snow sitting on her clothing and skin finally settling in.

"You have a fire type don't you?" Paul asked, taking note of the girl as she hugged herself tightly. She nodded, turning to look at the boy as they continued to move forward. "Why why don't you use it to warm up," he said, rolling his eyes at the girl's lack of commonsense.

"Oh, right," she giggled, taking out her Quilava's pokeball. She then picked the pokemon up, hugging it tightly and warming herself up.

The two eventually came to a small clearing and decided that it was a good place to set up camp as the sun was already setting. Dawn sighed as she sat by the fire they'd made, still hugging her volcano pokemon lovingly as she watched Paul put up his tent.

 _Maybe this trip really isn't going to be so bad_. She thought to herself, smiling gently at the look of concentration on Paul's face.

 **Yeah, sorry if it annoys you that I made Buneary evolve, I mean, it's been about 5 years since she got them so~ Plus she's still pretty adorable for contests and stuff so that's okay I reckon :3 Anyways, thanks for reading.**

 **~X-Ray**


	4. 9 Days to go

_9 Days to go._

"Finally!" Dawn yelled excitedly as they stood atop a hill overlooking Solaceon town. Paul winced, covering his ears from the girl's shouts. _I swear I'll be completely surprised if I'm not deaf by the end of this._ He thought to himself dryly.

Dawn began to charge down the hill, excited by the fact that she'd be sleeping in a real bed again and that she'd be able to have a proper shower.

"Hey be careful!" Paul called, knowing all too well about her clumsiness due to the multiple times she'd tripped over a tree root or even her own two feet within the last few days. Too late. Dawn began to skid, finally losing her balance and landing flat on her face.

"Oww…" She moaned, sitting up on her knees and rubbing her throbbing forehead. Paul sighed and made his way over to her.

"Let me see," he said, eyes rolling. Dawn pouted and looked up at the boy, pointing to her forehead and letting him examine it for any major injuries.

"You'll be fine," He said, shaking his head at the bluenette. "You seriously need to be more careful you troublesome girl, you could really hurt yourself one day."

"I know," she grimaced, slowly getting back to her feet.

Around an hour later, they'd just entered the streets of Solaceon. Dawn couldn't keep the huge grin from spreading across her face, she was so excited to see so many people again.

"So, what are we gonna do first? We should go shopping or something, that'd be fun! Oh, we should also go and look at all the Christmas lights later on, and we need to book into the pokemon centre as well don't we…" Dawn rambled, not allowing Paul to really make a comment about anything, although this was how he liked it.

Paul guided Dawn over to the pokemon centre where they booked a room for the night.

"Well, while we're here I'm going to train," Paul announced once they'd got settled and chosen their beds.

"Oh. I thought we could go shopping together or something though," Dawn said in disappointment. Paul didn't say anything, he merely took his pokeballs and left. Dawn pouted after him but soon shook her head.

"Well, maybe now I can have a shower in peace!" She mused to herself, quickly recovering. After stepping out of the warmth of the shower, she quickly wrapped herself up again, deciding to go shopping on her own. She needed to get everyone Christmas presents after all.

Dawn sighed in content as she entered a nice looking shop with all sorts of pokemon accessories and other adorable items. It was a very good store; she'd managed to find and nice gift for the majority of her pokemon and once she'd left, she realised that the sun was hanging low in the sky.

After finding that Paul hadn't returned to their room, she assumed that he was still training and so she set back out to find him. She decided to search the borderline of the forest they'd originally come from, and soon enough, she saw a powerful thunder attack light up the sky in the distance.

Dawn began to run in the direction she'd seen the move, and sure enough Paul was standing in a clearing surrounded by his pokemon. Dawn had to do a double take when she registered what was actually happening.

Paul was _praising_ his Electivire; his hand had reached up to pat it on the shoulder and he was saying something inaudible to Dawn. That's when she saw him smile, it quickly faded but it was genuine. It was a smile which lit up the grey oblivion which was his eyes and made them almost seem to sparkle. Dawn flushed and her heart beat seemed to speed up tenfold.

"What the…" she muttered to herself, looking down and placing her hand on her chest. All she knew was she liked Paul's smile, it was gentle and kind which weren't traits she'd really ever seen Paul portray. She wanted to see more of this side of him.

"Paul," she called after a while, once she'd managed to calm down and the blush had completely faded. She stepped out of her place amongst the trees and out into the clearing where he could see her. "It's getting late," she said with a smile, "do you want to head back now?"

The addressed looked over at Dawn and nodded, returning all of his pokemon and walking over to where the girl stood.

"I assume you went shopping," Paul stated, giving Dawn a sideways glance. She nodded, turning to look at him. "Did you get any more food?" He asked as they walked. Dawn sweat dropped and shook her head sheepishly.

"I only went to browse and ended up getting some Christmas presents for my pokemon," she explained. Paul tched' and rolled his eyes.

"What's the point in getting presents for your pokemon?" He questioned.

"What do you mean? It's Christmas, everyone deserves a present, even your pokemon," she replied with a frown. Paul merely shrugged.

"You gain nothing from doing so," he said in a monotone.

"Yes you do… You feel so happy when you give someone a gift, seeing their face light up when they open it is just the best feeling." She sighed happily, clasping her hands together. Paul shook his head sceptically.

"Yet I don't see the point as they never earned the reward,"

"There doesn't need to be a 'point' to it, it's Christmas! Although if you're going to be like that, consider it a gift to them for working so hard throughout the year!" The rest of the trip back was spent in silence, Dawn was just wondering how Paul could be so against the holiday.

Surprisingly, they were some of the only people eating at the pokemon centre that evening. It was rather quiet, and Paul didn't mind one bit.

"Oh, Nurse Joy!" Dawn called out after they'd finished their meal. The passing nurse stopped and turned to smile at the bluenette.

"What is it?" she asked sweetly, walking over to where the two teens stood.

"Well, I was just curious as to why it's so empty right now," Dawn explained.

"Right now everyone is most likely at home celebrating Christmas with their families," the pinkette replied, causing Dawn to groan, realising that she should be in Twinleaf, sitting by the fire and watching Christmas themed contest matches with her mother right now.

"Why do you ask?" The nurse said cheerily.

"Oh no reason, I was just curious is all," replied Dawn. Just as the woman was about to walk away, she paused and turned back to face them.

"Are you two doing anything this evening?" She asked, tilting her head.

"Um, no I don't think so," Dawn said, turning to look up at Paul who shook his head in confirmation.

"Well, would you two be willing to decorate the Christmas tree we have in lobby? I'm sure a lovely young couple like you-"

"Oh ah, we're not a couple!" Interrupted Dawn quickly, her face turning as red as a conkeldurr's nose. The poor girl had become quite flustered while Paul merely grunted.

"Oh that's a shame," the nurse giggled. "You do look quite adorable together," she added cheekily as Dawn's mouth open and shut like a magikarp out of water. "Anyway, would you be interested in decorating the tree then?" She asked, all jokes aside.

"Of course we would!" Dawn exclaimed, managing to recover quickly before Paul could deny her request. They were soon lead over to where the great tree stood and were given an array of decorations. Paul groaned, lowering himself into one of the seats.

"What are you doing?" Dawn questioned, placing her hands on her hips.

"Watching," he said simply. Dawn huffed and marched over to where her companion was. She grabbed one of his wrists and attempted to haul him over to the tree.

"Paul," she dragged on, "Please come and decorate the tree with me," she begged, putting on her best lillipup face. Paul sighed and unwillingly allowed himself to be dragged over to where the tree and decorations were.

"Here," Dawn said, handing him one end of the golden tinsel she'd picked out of the box. "You make sure it doesn't get tangled and I'll wrap it!" She called cheerily. As unwilling as he was at first, Paul eventually got into the tree decorating. Again, he refused to admit it, but he'd thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Once they'd finished, they both stepped back to admire their work. Red, green and blue lights flashed while golden tinsel and different coloured baubles hung off of the branches. Dawn snuck a look to see her partner's reaction, and to her delight, he was smiling ever so slightly. It was different to the one he'd shown his pokemon, this one was a little prouder than anything. Still Dawn really liked it.

"I'm turning the lights off," Paul stated once Dawn had clambered into bed and he'd finished getting ready himself.

"Okay," Dawn called softly, snuggling down further into the soft pillow the centre provided. "Hey Paul," Dawn called out after a while. There was no reply at first, but she then heard a soft grunt from the other side of the room. It was his way of saying 'what is it?'

"Well… I- I like your smile," she confessed, feeling her face heat up slightly. There was no reply from the other side of the room, although she could hear him shuffling about and feel his eyes on her, despite the darkness of the room. "You should use it more often," she added with a small giggle.

Again there was no reply, however little did she know that Paul felt happy for her words, and he could feel something rather odd; his face seemed to get a little warmer than the rest of his body.

 **Nyaw the fluff x3 And hey, I actually managed to post two today hahah. (I have no life)**

 **~X-Ray**


	5. 8 Days to go

_8 Days to go._

Dawn groaned again as she lay face up, looking towards the roof of her tent. _How long have I been trying to get to sleep?_ She asked herself with a sigh.

"For too long," She muttered bitterly, causing her Quilava to shuffle slightly in its sleep. Dawn sighed, looking down at the volcano pokemon lovingly, thankful to have its naturally hot body temperature keeping her toasty.

After a few more minutes of restlessness, the bluenette sat up carefully, so as not to wake up her sleeping pokemon. She gingerly clambered out of her sleeping back and shrugged on her coat and boots, not bothering to dress properly.

She exited her tent, eyes skimming over to where her companion was stationed for the night. His tent was the colour of midnight blue where as hers was a beautiful lilac. The fire had long since been extinguished and the girl's only source of light was the moon, shining through the empty patches of the canopy up above.

After a good few minutes of contemplating what to do with her time, Dawn began rolling a snowball around and around, increasing its size bit by bit. She'd eventually managed to complete two rather large balls of snow, lifting the slightly smaller one on top of the other.

Tapping her chin, Dawn realised that she didn't have anything other than a few pebbles and sticks to decorate it with, due to the fact that she didn't bring any extra clothing items. She began to pace around, her arms crossed and her face scrunched up, deep in thought.

"I know!" She exclaimed a little too loudly before clamping her hand over her mouth. _Don't want to wake up Paul…_ She thought with a shudder. Slowly, she crept over to the boy's tent, trying to be as silent as possible when undoing the entrance.

From there, she spied the grey backpack containing all of his belongings. She quickly picked it up, taking it outside with her and quietly closed his tent back up. She lowered herself down onto the cold ground below, ignoring her body's shivers in protest.

Moments later, she'd pulled out a long white scarf, similar to her own, and a red hat containing a black and white semi pokeball on the side. She tilted her head, curious as to why Paul never wore these items despite the weather being as cold as it was.

Dawn frowned, her hand brushing against something hard at the bottom of the back; it felt like an over sized book. She didn't pull it out however as she knew she really had no right to pry into Paul's possessions. Merely taking what she did would probably be enough to piss Paul off big time.

Once she'd dressed the snowman, she stepped back to admire her work. It was still missing a proper nose, however it couldn't be helped; it wasn't like they carried carrots around with them. Dawn glanced back towards the bag sitting near the ashes of the previous fire. She kneeled down near it, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.

"It's not like it'll affect him if he doesn't know about it," She mused to herself quietly, fishing out the book from the bottom of the bag. It was a sketchbook, the cover was black and the back was made out of some kind of cardboard. Dawn almost toppled over; she never expected Paul to be a person with a love of art, it just didn't seem to suit his personality, although she supposed that there were a lot of things she didn't know about the boy. He was extremely hard to figure out.

She turned the page and her breath hitched; it was beautiful. The pencil strokes were obviously drawn with such love and care to create a tribal styled turtwig. It was shown using a very powerful razor leaf, which was headed to an un-depicted opponent. She flipped the pages, they each showed his pokemon growing and becoming stronger with every battle. There would occasionally be odd trainer here and there, obviously people he'd met on his journeys.

She suddenly stopped on one page, her eyes wide as she saw what had been drawn onto it in such detail. There she stood, along with Ash and Brock. Piplup was sitting atop her head while Pikachu adorned Ash's shoulder. She was smiling her adorable, bright smile while Ash had a toothy grin pencilled onto his face. Brock looked on with that knowledgeable gaze she knew all too well. They were all looking at some unknown figure, standing behind the camera so as to speak. It didn't take too long to figure out that it was most likely Paul himself.

"He did care," she muttered to herself, feeling the tears prickling the corner of her eyes. Her year with Ash and Brock had been the happiest one of her life. This one drawing managed to portray all of her feelings on the one page. Unwillingly, she flipped over to find more battles; she recognised one to be his Elekid against Ash's Pikachu.

Eventually she seemed to come across more recent times; she could recognise a few of the Unova pokemon which she'd seen when she went to the region to visit Ash. Despite how beautiful his art was in the beginning, she could see the skill progressing as time went on. She stopped on yet another page, her eyes widening as she did so. There she was, sitting at the Paul and Reggie's dinner table, that radiant smile still spread across her lips.

Dawn flipped over again, all of the next pictures showing the last couple of days she'd had travelling with him. She blushed, skimming over the next few pages; one was showing her, clinging to his back, another of them having their snowball fight and another one of them showing their Christmas tree, all in great detail.

After this, there were only empty pages, obviously waiting to be filled. Dawn eventually placed the book carefully back in the bottom of his bag and snuck back into Paul's tent, returning the object. She then returned to her own, finally snuggling back down into her sleeping bag and scooping Quilava back up into her arms.

She smiled to herself, realising that there was so much more to Paul beneath the surface than what met the eye. She knew that he didn't like showing his true colours, but she never realised that he seemed so bright deep within.

She truly wanted to get to know this other side of the boy, and they were her final thoughts as sleep held her gently in its grasp.

 **Heya, sorry I was a little late again, I actually did something other than sit in my room all day yesterday lol. I'm gonna have to write another one today though so it should be up within a few hours :)**

 **~X-Ray**


	6. 7 Days to go

_7 Days to go._

"Kyaaa!" Dawn screamed, violently sitting up in her sleeping bag. No-one likes being woken up with a face-full of snow and she was no exception.

"What?" She asked moodily, her eyes sweeping her tent and locking with the stormy eyes of a purple haired teen. She instantly regretted the tone she'd used against him when she noticed the furious expression on his face.

"What is that?" He growled, yanking her up and dragging her outside, still in her pyjamas despite the cold. Dawn winced, not only due to the weather but also because she felt like her wrist was about to fall off and Paul was honestly very scary when he was seriously angry.

She instantly paled when she saw the snowman; she'd forgotten to remove the clothing items which belonged to the boy, meaning that he now knew she'd taken his bag.

"What the hell… do you think gave you the right to go through my stuff?!" He snarled, his grey orbs flashing dangerously as he rounded on Dawn.

"I, um…" she stammered, backing away once he'd released her from his death grip.

"What else did you see?!" He demanded, causing Dawn to turn away guiltily.

"I only took them," She mumbled, trying her best not to succumb to the cold around her and shiver as she pointed toward the hat and scarf adorning the snowman.

"You're a terrible liar." Paul practically whispered, his eyes narrowing as he stalked towards the girl. She quivered as he loomed over her, much like a Mamoswine would a mere Swinub.

"What else… did you see?" He repeated, his face now inches with Dawn's head due to his much taller height. The girl tried to suppress the crimson slowly spreading across her cheeks, she could feel his hot breath on the top of her head and she forced herself to look down, afraid that if she was to look up, their faces would collide.

"I saw the book…" she finally sighed, unable to hold her ground any longer. After that remark, Paul backed away, his hand moving up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Dawn really didn't see what was wrong with it, however she knew that Paul was the subject of this matter and he acted very different to every other person she knew. He was someone she just couldn't figure out, and it really frustrated her.

"You're so nosey and annoying and I have no idea why I ever agreed to travel with you. I hate your happy-go-lucky nature. It frustrates me because I just don't get it! Even your bloody hair frustrates me and I don't even know why!" Paul finally snapped, his eyes blazing. "That smile which is always glued to your face, what is it with you?! What in the world is there to be happy about?! You just confuse me so much,"

Dawn was taken aback. Each insult stabbing deep into her heart and she had to try and hold back the tears. She began to walk backwards, her face beet red and her heart hammering in her chest. She then whirled around, running far away from their camp and away from the boy who'd just caused her so much pain. The thing that hurt her most was that he didn't even bother to go after her.

The tears began cascading down her face, her breathing grew ragged as she ran farther and farther away. Usually she'd have been able to brush these insults off, she was after all quite a confident girl, she knew her strengths but also her weaknesses so usually nothing anyone said could cause her self esteem to waver. This however was different, as she now realised that this boy, this cold hearted, mean spirited, lavender haired boy had stolen her heart.

She didn't know when she'd begun to feel this way; he'd alway intrigued her, ever since they'd first met all them years ago. She just really wanted to see him feeling happy; every time they'd crossed paths he'd either show no sign of emotion what so ever or just insult either Ash or herself angrily. He did seem to have some form of respect for Brock however, possibly because he was a breeder like Reggie.

The drawings in that book were proof that there was more to Paul that met the eye, he was just very good at hiding it. And now Dawn had found his secret, he'd pushed her away, just when the bluenette thought she was getting somewhere with him.

Dawn eventually stopped, sinking down to her knees onto the snow, her sobs having yet to cease or even die down even a bit. Her body temperature was rapidly dropping and she cursed to herself for forgetting her pokemon. At the moment however, she didn't give a damn about whether her toes and fingers fell off, all she wanted healing at the moment was her broken heart.

She clutched at her chest, her body violently shaking from the sobs and the coldness which lingered all around her. She shook her head in denial, refusing to believe she'd just managed to shatter she friendship, no matter how small, she'd managed to forge with Paul.

"Why did I have to fall for someone like him," she chuckled sourly to herself though the sobs.

"Stupid, stupid," she muttered over and over again. The pain in her chest making her barely realise that her nails were digging into her palms. Her cobalt eyes shot open when she heard rustling in the large bushes a way off from her. She stared intently at the spot, tears still silently falling down her reddened cheeks.

The rustling came again, followed by snuffling and a menacing growl. Slowly, she began to shuffle backwards on her hands and knees. She shakily stood, her legs completely numb due to the long amount of time she'd spent sat in the snow.

The growl came again, a little more fiercely than last time. Dawn just held her breath, squeezing her eyes shut, her entire body trembling with a newly found fear. She had none of her pokemon to protect her and this wild one sounded dangerous.

She suddenly heard the rustling of leaves and snapping of twigs as she felt herself standing in the shadow of something exceptionally large. With a burst of courage, she dared open an eye and to her horror, not even three meters away stood a large, white pokemon of which she'd never see before. It looked much like an Ursaring, yet it was white and much, much bigger with icicles hanging off its chin.

She slowly began to walk backwards, hoping that if she was slow, it wouldn't trouble her. The beast watched her intently, its eyes fixed on her every move. It was all going well as she'd managed to get a fair distance away, that was until a twig happened to be lying right where she was stepping.

 _Snap._

 _ROAR!_

The pokemon growled as it began to thunder towards the helpless girl, each step making the ground around it shake mercilessly. Dawn screamed, turning tail and bolting in the opposite direction.

"PAUL!" she wailed in terror, the stream of tears becoming a waterfall as she felt herself slowing and the creature gaining on her. Her breathing grew ragged as she continued on, the only thing keeping her going was the adrenaline and terror.

She cried out in pain as her foot caught on a raised tree root, causing her to fall flat on her face. _No please, not at a time like this, damn it clumsiness!_ She screamed inside her head, desperately struggling to get back up.

"Paul, please help me, I'm sorry," She muttered to herself, hearing the pokemon merely inches away.

"Hammer arm!" She heard someone yell as she felt them wrap their arms around her waist and gently help her up. She opened her eyes, seeing Paul watching her, his face seemingly stricken with worry as he held her at arms length. Dawn simply began to cry harder, clinging onto him as if he was her life line as she buried her head into his chest.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated over and over again as Paul sighed and hugged her closer, pulling her down to the ground with him.

"Return," he called, holding out his Ursaring's pokeball once the Beartic lay unconscious on the snow covered ground. "Don't apologise, It's my fault," he then mumbled into Dawn's sapphire locks as he brought his hand up to gently stoke her, trying to soothe the girl in his lap.

Once she'd eventually ceased her sobs, she looked up at Paul, still clutching onto his chest.

"Thank you…" she muttered shyly. "And I'm sorry, I had no right to look through your things,"

He looked down into her innocent, azure eyes, causing his stomach to flip for reasons unbeknown to him.

"No, I'm sorry for saying all of them things, I shouldn't have," he replied with a shake of his lilac mane as he absentmindedly weaved his fingers through her hair. Dawn could feel her face growing warm again and she looked down, trying to obscure it from her companion's view. As much as she wanted to sit like this forever, she knew that she needed to get back to camp; her pokemon were most likely worried sick.

She gently pushed herself off of Paul, much to her own dismay. She instantly shook however, the cold once again hitting her as she stood in only her pink pyjamas. Paul didn't miss a beat and she was quickly given his jacket to shield her from the cold. It felt oddly familiar and comforting to her and so she snuggled down into the material as it warmed her body up.

"Oh, Paul?" She said as they made their way back.

"What is it?"

"Well, I've never seen that pokemon before, what was it?" She asked with an adorable tilt of her head.

"A Beartic," he said monotonously. "I have no idea what it's doing here in Sinnoh, it's a Unova pokemon so I assume that maybe someone released out here, maybe not too long ago."

"Oh," Dawn said simply, not knowing why anyone would release a pokemon as powerful as that. She was also rather surprised that Paul hadn't made an attempt to catch the beast; he'd usually have at least seen what moves it was capable of performing.

They got back within a few minutes. Quilava leaped at its trainer, nuzzling into her chest as she held him tightly, heading back into her tent to get dressed and wrapped up in much warmed clothing. She knew she'd treasure the moments Paul held her forever, even thinking back to a few minutes ago made her heart pound.

"Stupid feelings," she muttered to herself, shaking her head as her hand automatically made its way over to where her heart thumped in her chest.

 **Ehe~ Sorry for not updating 'within a few hours'. I ended up going out to watch a movie with a few friends and then my and my family drove around to look at some Christmas lights. I just wasn't in the mood to write after that and today I'm seriously sleep deprived (due to the fact that I think I've been having about 6 hours of sleep for the passed week) so I'm not gonna be writing the next chapter today either cause I'll most likely end up passing out heh.**


	7. 6 Days to go

_6 Days to go._

Hearthome city was only minutes away and to say Dawn was excited would be a complete understatement. She was planning to take a detour and visit Fantina once they'd arrived as she hadn't seen the top coordinator in years. She'd thought that it'd be nice to catch up as their ranks were now nearly matched.

The two teens had gotten over all of the dama which had occurred the previous day. They'd made up and as far as Dawn was concerned, they'd become even closer than before. Paul was beginning to open up to her, even if it was only a tiny bit at a time, but Dawn was thankful for it.

"So, what are you doing first?" Dawn asked curiously, linking her hands together behind her back. Paul shrugged, looking down at the bluenette walking next to him.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Well, I was planning to go and see Fantina," she explained, her head bobbing in time with her small strides. Paul only nodded, he may have begun to open up a bit but he was still the silent type and wasn't really one to contribute much to a conversation, and Dawn respected that.

The streets were bustling as people scurried around, most likely finishing last minute Christmas shopping. The pokemon centre in this city, much to the surprised of the teens, was absolutely packed.

"What the…" Dawn muttered, looking around at all the people and pokemon spread out around the lobby. "Hey, what's going on?" She asked grabbing a boy's sleave to gain his attention. He seemed almost star struck for a moment, before stuttering out his reply.

"Well, there's a massive winter themed contest happening in the Hearthome city contest hall," he explained, giving her a quizzical look. "Although I thought that you'd already know that Miss Berlitz." He said with a tilt of his head.

Dawn thanked the boy and he went on his way. _Right, of course people know her now, she's won the grand festival at least twice now._ Paul noted to himself as he looked down at her, realising that she was watching him with huge, pleading azure eyes. He sighed and nodded his head and a huge grin graced her lips as she raced up to join the line at the front desk.

Paul smiled softly to himself, he may have insulted it the other day, but secretly he'd always love her smile. He set himself in one of the lobby chairs as he waited for her, feeling a slight pang of jealousy as she conversed with a red headed boy who seemed about his own age. How she managed to talk to strangers so familiarly he didn't know, and despite it not being any of his business, it annoyed him for some reason.

A few minutes later, she pranced back over to her travelling buddy, her eyes sparkling with the excitement of a Munchlax who'd just been given the biggest poffin in the world. She leaped up and down with joy as Paul rolled his eyes, a small smile playing at his lips.

"You'll watch won't you?" She asked with anticipation, automatically grabbing onto his sleave, her eyes wide and pleading.

"Sure," he said coolly, shaking her off and walking over to book a room for the night.

A few hours later, Dawn was anxiously waiting backstage while the many contestants strutted their stuff, creating beautiful moves to impress the judges. Despite the amount of contests she'd entered, the wait still unnerved her ever so slightly, even though she had complete and utter faith in her pokemon as well as herself. The fact that she knew Paul would be in the audience seemed to make it ten times worse. She wanted to impress the judges but in all honestly, the only person she really wanted to amaze was him.

"Miss Berlitz, you're up next," A woman with a headset and a clip board called, causing the bluenette to stand from the bench she was sitting on and walk down a narrow corridor with her two pokeballs. Dawn was wearing a spaghetti strap dress with a white body and light pink skirt which flared out around her knees. Black flats adorned her feet and a hair straightener was used to create ringlets at the bottom of her sapphire locks. Her trademark yellow clips had been traded out for her pink ones as she took a deep breath, readying herself to perform.

She entered the stage and was welcomed by a deafening round of applause and whistles while the lights momentarily blinded her.

"Next up is top coordinator Dawn Berlitz from twinleaf town with her Pachirisu and Piplup!" Marian said enthusiastically into the microphone before stepping off stage and allowing the coordinator to take over.

"Piplup, Pachirisu, spotlight!" She called as she twirled around, the two pokemon appearing in a flurry of bubbles and sparks. "Bubble beam followed by ice beam," she cried before her Piplup produced a powerful bubble beam and then froze the bubbles mid air.

"Now spin and use sweet kiss," she then commanded, causing Pachirisu to leap up into the air, spinning around gracefully and unleashing the fairy type move. The heats then exploded, causing the bubbles of ice to break and flutter towards the ground as tiny snowflakes.

"Discharge," she called finally, as Pachirisu unleashed a discharge into the air as it spun around on its back, making electricity crackle throughout the snowflakes. The two pokemon then leaped up, landing on either of their trainer's outstretched arms as she curtsied, the final flakes fluttering down and melting around her.

The crowd exploded and Dawn grinned up at everyone, finally realising that one of the judges was Fantina. _So I did get to see her after all_ , she thought humorously to herself as she made her way off stage. She silently wondered if Paul had enjoyed her performance, she sure hoped that he had.

A few hours passed and Dawn waited patiently for the results to come in. She of course had managed to make it to the second and final round, much to her delight. Due to the fact that this was meant to be a short contest, only 4 out of the 120 contestants had managed to get through and so if Dawn was to win, she'd only have two rounds left.

"Mamoswine, Quilava, spotlight!" She yelled, releasing her next pokemon as she stood across from her opponent. The girl opposite her looked a few years younger, she had blonde hair which had been curled and put up in two adorable pig tails.

The girl sent out a Snowrunt and Roselia. Dawn noticed that because wintry combinations were more affective during this contest due to it being winter themed, ice type pokemon seemed to be a winning trend with each coordinator.

The girl attacked beautifully, however Dawn had even prettier counter attacks. The seconds ticked by on the massive screen opposite the audience and the bluenette was gradually over powering her opponent.

"Snowrunt and Roselia are unable to battle, therefore Dawn is the winner this round," Marian called, stopping the countdown short. Dawn laughed happily as she ran over to hug her two pokemon in congratulations.

"You both did great!" she exclaimed, snuggling into the thick fur of her Mamoswine and squeezing Quilava.

Her opponent thanked both of her pokemon, also hugging them adoringly. She then walked over to Dawn, holding her hand out, a big grin gracing her lips.

"It was an honour battling you Miss Dawn," She said graciously as Dawn shook her hand enthusiastically.

"Oh no, the honour is all mine," she replied with a smile, bringing her in for a hug. The two curtsied and walked off of the stage together, allowing the next match to take place.

Dawn now stood opposite to the boy she'd talked to in the pokemon centre, asking what in the world was going on. He flashed her a smile before releasing his first pokemon; one was a Torterra and the other was a Lapras. She'd decided that she'd have to take note of this person as he might one day be a threat to her title of top coordinator. His name was apparently Lucas, he seemed like a very strong opponent and Dawn knew she couldn't underestimate him.

A powerful frenzy plant was followed by a strong blizzard and Dawn had to think of a counter attack quickly.

"Mamoswine, ice shard and take down, Quilava use swift, you know what to do!" With that, Mamoswine ate its own ice shard, causing an ice like armour to form around its body. Quilava encircled the massive pokemon with loads of stars as it sent out a swift attack towards its comrade. Mamoswine then stood in front of Quilava, charging right into the enemy's attack while protecting the other pokemon.

A few more blows were exchanged between the four pokemon and both Dawn and Lucas were sitting pretty even with their scores. Dawn was trying not to panic, she hadn't been challenged like this for a long time and it was honestly very refreshing for her. There were a few seconds left on the clock and Dawn knew it was time to make her last move.

"Flame ice!" She yelled, pointing her finger in the direction of the foes, her face scrunched up in concentration. Quilava began thundering towards the opponents with a powerful flame wheel. The shattered ice shard then encased it, causing a dazzling mass of ice to collide with its targets, Quilava gracefully leaping back after impact fully unscathed.

"And time!" Marian called once the timer bleeped, indicated that the match had ended. Dawn's face lit up as she glanced towards the final scores; she'd won by quite a few points in the end. She picked her Quilava up, whirling him round and round as she then headed toward her bigger pokemon. Mamoswine nuzzled his trainer lovingly as she patted him graciously.

"And the winner is top coordinator, Dawn Berlitz!" The host said dramatically, holding up Dawn's arm as the bluenette beamed towards the audience, her eyes sparkling with joy. Once she'd been given her ribbon and the trophy, she smiled toward Lucas, hurrying over and giving him a quick hug in thanks.

"You did great!" She exclaimed.

"Ha, thanks. Although I expected no less from a top coordinator," he confessed with a scratch of the back of his head. "Thanks for the experience," With that he left the stage. Dawn too gave one last wave towards the audience, causing them once again to create an almost deafening round of applause.

To her surprise, Dawn came around to the changing rooms to find none other than Paul Shinji, waiting for her. She beamed at him, picking up her pace as she ran towards him, trophy and ribbon in hand.

"So, what did you think?" She asked shyly as she arrived in front of him. She waited anxiously for him to reply for what seemed like hours, his face never once portraying any sign of emotion until he smirked, bringing his hand up to ruffle her hair.

"Well done troublesome," he praised, allowing his hand to linger on her head for a few seconds before he removed it. Dawn beamed up at him, her face turning slightly pink.

"I'm so happy!" She exclaimed, giving him a quick hug before leaving to change.

 **Woo, finally done! I realised that technically I'm not entirely late with the chapters for a lot of people, mainly because Australia is ahead of a lot of countries hehe. Although again I wasn't able to do another chapter and I'm sorry! I won't be able to write anything tomorrow as I'm going out for my birthday and then having a few friends stay over for the night. I know I should have written more today but I've been kinda out of it. Please forgive me!**

 **~X-Ray**


	8. 5 Days to go

**Did you miss me my lovely readers? I'm sure you did! Well, here you have it, the chapter meant for yesterday. I'll be releasing the next one later on.**

 _5 Days to go._

The duo had made an awful lot of progress as they headed in the direction of Oreburgh city. Paul had predicted that they'd make it there by the next day, and so they'd decided to stop off for a break.

"I'm going to train," Paul said, walking off in another direction with his pokeballs. Dawn pouted; she really didn't like being left on her own after the experience she'd had with the Beartic.

"Could I come with you?" She asked, running after the boy. He gave a mere shrug of his shoulders and Dawn giggled happily, taking it as a yes.

A few minutes later, Dawn was sitting comfortably under a tree atop one of Paul's spare jackets so that legs wouldn't get cold. She watched intently as Paul began to battle his Electivire and Torterra. It was quite interesting to see how his methods had changed throughout the years.

She realised that his interactions with Ash most likely softened him up a little considering that in the end, the raven haired boy's training methods proved to be more successful. She smiled as he sprayed Torterra with a potion after a rather harsh brick break from Electivire had provided him with a deep gash to his leg.

Her gaze soon fell upon his bag which leaned against the tree she was sitting below. She silently wondered to herself if he'd drawn anything else. Piplup, who was sitting on Dawn's lap, nudged his trained and pointed towards where the two pokemon were training.

"Piplup pip!" He exclaimed, getting up and running about. The bluenette tilted her head, also pulling herself to her feet and walking over to where Piplup was now performing a drill peck on a near by rock.

"Do you wanna train too Piplup?" She asked, crouching down.

"Lup!" He exclaimed, bringing a flipper to his chest determinedly.

"Okay!" She chimed enthusiastically, pulling out a pokeball from her right pocket and releasing Togekiss from the red and white capsule."You two wait here," She said with a smile as she flounced over to where Paul was standing.

"Hey Paul," She dragged on, standing in front of him and sheepishly putting her hands behind her back.

"What?" He asked in slight irritation.

"Do you think it'd be alright if we could maybe train together, as in, have a two on two battle?" She asked sweetly. He looked at her incredulously for a few moments before sighing and folding his arms behind his head.

"Sure whatever," he muttered with a shake of his head. "But I'm not going easy on you because my pokemon need training as well,"

"I know! I don't expect you to go easy on me," she chirped happily, beckoning over her two pokemon. Piplup and Togekiss stood opposite Paul's Electivire and Torterra, a look of concentration etched onto both of their faces.

"Right, first thing's first, Piplup hop onto Togekiss's back!" Dawn called first, refusing to allow her opponent to get the upper hand with the first move.

"Togekiss, Aura sphere and Piplup bubble beam!" Dawn commanded in determination. She knew that there was n no way she was going to win, however she'd be very happy of she at least gave Paul a good battle.

Paul looked slightly taken aback as the two moves merged, the bubble beam surrounding the aura sphere as the attack headed towards his pokemon.

"Torterra, use frenzy plant on the bubbles," he said, causing the grass type move to cancel out the water type. The aura sphere however still managed to his its mark. Torterra merely brushed it of with a shake of its mighty head.

Paul smirked, also knowing that the girl stood almost no chance against his pokemon. He still however, wanted to humour her, after all, how could he say no to that face? _Wait what?!_ He hissed inside his head. _What the hell am I thinking?!_

"Electivire, spin and use thunder punch," He then said, shaking his head to try and clear it of all useless thoughts. Electivire leaped up into the air from below Dawn's Togekiss, it began to spin mid air, it's outstretched fist crackling with electricity. Sparks flew due to the rotating momentum and as the move collided with Togekiss's underbelly, she cried out, crash landing to the ground as Piplup leaped off just in time.

"Togekiss!" Dawn yelled frantically, "Are you alright?" Togekiss gave a weak nod in return, shaking her bruised body and turning back to their foes, her eyes narrowing in determination. Dawn however looked on in surprise, that move looked very much like something she'd use in a contest.

"Right," She finally said, a new found confidence bubbling up from within. "Piplup, hop back onto Togekiss and then Togekiss, you fly towards them!" If they were paired with anyone else, the two pokemon would be seriously questioning the person's judgement, however they both had complete and utter faith in the bluenette, and so they complied.

Paul smirked, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he carefully watched the two incoming pokemon.

"Use giga drain," he commanded coolly. Torterra obediently did as was told, the mountains atop his back beginning to glow. Before the move could make contact with Piplup, Dawn called out her next move.

"Use safeguard Togekiss!" Said pokemon crossed its wings, its body beginning to glow green until it unleased a large green barrier, repelling the incoming attack. "Now, Togekiss, use sky attack and Piplup, use drill peck!"

The moves combined, the two pokemon surrounded by a red aura as they thundered towards their target. Torterra had no time to dodge or counter and so ended up taking the exceedingly super effective attack head on.

It cried out in pain, its body now covered in cuts and bruises. Paul merely looked rather shell shocked, he didn't realise that this girl was capable of such a strong attack. He'd always seen a coordinator as someone who was only capable of making their attacks look good yet having no power behind said attacks.

"Right," he muttered moodily, crossing his arms and standing his ground stubbornly. "Time to finish this. Torterra, create a wall of stone edge and then Electivire, thunder!" He yelled.

Torterra's eyes began to glow green and an array of stones appeared around its body. They then moved towards Dawn's pokemon, forming a wall of which they could not see passed. Electivire then leaped up into the air, unleashing a thunder attack towards the two weaker typings. He made sure that the attack wasn't very powerful due to the fact that he knew that both teens wouldn't want the opposing pokemon seriously injured.

Piplup and Togekiss groaned; they lay on the floor while cuts and bruises covered their bodies. Dawn ran out onto the battle field, placing Piplup in her lap and helping Togekiss to her feet. She then thanked and returned her pokemon, allowing them to have a well deserved rest.

She looked over towards where Paul was standing, obviously having done the same thing. He watched her stoically as she got up from sitting on her knees.

"P-Paul that move…" She stuttered, slowly making her way towards him. The boy appeared to ignore her, merely turning away to pick up his backpack and jacket from where they lay on the snow. Dawn took a deep breath.

"Paul, that was a move that I use in my contests." she stated, coming up beside him. Again he didn't say anything and turned away from her, beginning to walk in the direction they were going originally.

"Hey, how do you know about that move?!" She asked, grabbing onto his sleave and forcing him to look at her. He sighed, rolling his eyes while trying to ignore his heart as it stupidly hammered in his chest.

"Because," he said simply, "It's not like I haven't watched any of your contests before," Dawn looked on at him in shock, her face instantly heating up and her grip on his jacket automatically tightening.

"W… what?" She stuttered, big blue eyes staring up at him in utter disbelief.

"Are you deaf stupid girl?" He growled, pulling away and continuing towards their destination. Dawn stood for a few moments before running to catch up. She shook her head, unable to keep the grin from making its way onto her face. _He's watched my contests before_. She repeated, over and over again in her head.

"Don't get the wrong idea, it's not because I liked you in the slightest, it's because they provided some good battle strategies," he muttered after a while. Dawn smiled to herself, _Typical Paul._

 **Hehe, this was a kind of spur of the moment thing I came up with after watching Ash verse Valerie a few days ago. (Yeah I'm pretty behind with the anime) I was silently raging about the fact that he completely forgets the battling techniques he'd learned from previous regions, like the one where his pokemon spin to avoid an attack that he'd gotten off of Dawn. My mind began to wonder and I was thinking; emWhat if Paul was to get some of his techniques from contest battles as well?**


	9. 4 Days to go

_4 Days to go._

"Hey Paul," Dawn called from her side of the room they'd gotten at the pokemon centre in Oreburgh.

"What?" He replied irritably. The boy was lying on his bed, his hand covering his eyes as he made an attempt to relax. These attempts however proved futile as his room mate was an incredibly noisy and restless bluenette who couldn't seem to go five minutes without rambling on about something he had no interest in.

"Well, I was wondering If you'd want to go shopping later," she said shyly, looking at him as she sat, cross-legged on her bed.

"Not interested," he said simply. Dawn puffed her cheeks out in annoyance. She narrowed her eyes and watching her companion for a few seconds before uncrossing her legs and leaping off the bed in one swift motion.

"Look Mr, you're coming whether it kills me," she stated stubbornly, stomping her foot on the ground much like a spoiled child. There was no reaction from the boy on the bed and that just enraged Dawn further.

"Paul," she whined. "Please, I'll be fun!" Again there was no reaction. She pouted and hostilely began to make her way over to the boy. That was until she found that her bag was conveniently sitting in the middle of her path.

"Kyaa!" She cried as she began to fall, landing horizontally on Paul's bed and said teen's torso. His eyes widened in shock and he groaned in discomfort.

"Troublesome, get off," he managed to wheeze out under the weight on his chest. Dawn shook her head, feeling moderately disorientated. Once she'd realised what had happened, her face immediately exploded in colour. She leaped off of him as fast as humanly possible.

"Are you okay?" He asked giving her a weird look as he noticed the colour her face had turned.

"Oh-uh yeah, I'm completely fine! I, uh… No need to worry!" She laughed nervously, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head and trying to get as far away from Paul as possible. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Dawn had to compose herself quickly before answering.

"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything," Nurse Joy said with a bow as Dawn opened the door.

"Oh, not at all!" She exclaimed cheerily.

"Well," the pinkette continued, "A boy named Ash Ketchum wants to talk with you on the video phone," Dawn squealed excitedly, grinning at the nurse.

"Thank you, we'll be out in a moment!" She said, waiting for the woman to leave before she shut the door. "Paul!" She yelled, causing the addressed to wince, opening up one eye. "Come on! We have to go and talk to Ash!" She exclaimed, running over to him and tugging on him arm.

"You can go," he grumbled, not budging in the slightest. Dawn gave him a crestfallen look before she sighed and shook her head.

"Fine, I'll go alone then," she pouted. "But I'm sure Ash would like to see you," she explained as she headed out the door. Excitedly, she made her way towards the lobby where Nurse Joy was waiting for her. She'd set up the chat and Dawn nodded a thanks before sitting down on a chair opposite the screen.

She was met with the familiar toothy grin of her slightly more matured best friend.

"Hey Ash!" She called excitedly, returning his grin.

"Hey Dawn," he replied, giving her a little wave.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried, popping up on Ash's shoulder and making the bluenette giggle.

"And hello to you as well Pikachu!" She said with a grin.

"Oh, you'll never guess what Dawn!" Ash said, his joy practically radiating through the screen. "I actually got back to Kanto for Christmas this year! It's great! Misty and Brock welcomed me back, although Brock isn't here right now, he's back in pewter city with his family,"

Dawn grinned, noticing the fond way he mentioned Misty's name.

"So Ash," she said slyly, "Where is Misty right now?"

"Oh ah," she Raven haired boy muttered, turning his head around to look at something beyond the rage of sight the screen provided.

"I'm right here!" A carrot top said with a smile as she walked into view, standing next to Ash. She was now almost a head smaller than him and that really put his height into perspective for Dawn as she was just over half a head smaller than the red head.

"Hey Misty!" Dawn called, waving towards the screen. The bluenette had become quite close with the girl, along with May; another of Ash's previous travelling buddies. It had been a little over two year since she'd seen them all in person, and it really pained her because they were all her best friends.

"So, what's going on with you?" Misty asked, "considering I doubt that Ash'll ask himself," she added, smacking the boy upside the head. Dawn chuckled at her friends' antics, they really were perfect for each other; the way Ash looked at Misty made it obvious to the bluenette that he truly cared for her, and Misty herself had spilled her feelings to Dawn when they last saw each other.

"Well," Dawn began, "You'll never guess who I'm travelling with! It's Paul!" she exclaimed excitedly. Ash's mouth hung open and Misty's eyes widened. She may not have met the guy in person but she'd heard much about him from the Sinnoh trio.

"Is he there with you right now?!" Ash exclaimed excitedly, wiggling around, obviously trying to see if he could get a better view of Dawn's surrounding area.

"No, he's being a grump and just lying in bed," Dawn huffed, crossing her arms.

"Who is now?" A deep voice called from behind her. A boy with chin length purple hair appeared on the screen.

"Paul!" Both Dawn and Ash exclaimed together causing the other two to wince.

"Don't yell so loudly," Paul sighed with a roll of his eyes.

"Yeah," Misty agreed. "I think you just popped my ear drum," she added, giving Ash a sharp look and making him cower down in fear.

"Drew, give it back!" A female's voice hollered from Ash and Misty's side of the screen. Dawn tilted her head in confusion.

"Was that May?" She asked as Paul made her shuffle over so that he could sit in the chair with her. She couldn't help the blush creep onto her cheek, which obviously didn't go unnoticed.

"Are you okay Dawn?" Ash asked as Misty smirked knowingly. "You look kind of red," he said innocently, receiving another thwack from the red head.

"Anyway, that was indeed May, did Ash not tell you she'd come over to Kanto on holiday for Christmas with Drew?" Misty asked, giving the poor boy another look.

"No, he didn't." Dawn said, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. _Why didn't they invite me over to Kanto if May was there?_ Dawn asked herself, feeling rather left out.

"May, come say hi!" Misty yelled, turning to look away from the screen.

"Oh, hey Dawn, I didn't know they were talking to you!" A bandannaless May exclaimed as her head popped into view, Misty shoved Ash out of the way so that she could get in. Dawn merely waved, giving the girl a quick smile.

"Well, we're kind of busy right now," Dawn explained, "Would it be alright if I called you once I got back home?"

"Oh, sure!" Both Misty and May said together. A quiet 'Yes' could be heard, obviously belonging to the off-screen Ash. With that, Dawn merely cut the connection and got up without a word.

"Oi, troublesome where are you going?" Asked Paul, getting up and hurrying over to her side.

"To our room," she said simply.

"You aren't going shopping?" Paul said with concern. It was obvious to him that something was bothering her and it irritated him.

"No, it's getting dark out," she replied. Paul rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. "What are you…" she questioned, the red returning to her cheeks. He simply grunted and dragged her out of the door.

"You wanted to go shopping with me, so we're going shopping," he finally said, coming to a halt as they entered the main street. Christmas lights and street lamps lit up the darkness of the night and surprisingly many people were still walking around.

Dawn sent the boy a questioning look but didn't protest, she just followed him almost like a lost Lillipup.

"Okay, speak to me. What's wrong Dawn? You've been silent this entire time and we're walking around a street full of shops for Arceus sake!" He said bluntly, turning around and looking down at the girl, his silver eyes boring into her azure ones.

Admittedly, Dawn was flattered that Paul had noticed that something wasn't right, the thought made her heart beat faster in her chest. Her eyes also widened when she realised that he'd actually said her name… he never said her name…

"It's nothing," she said finally, turning her head away from him.

"Don't you dare tell me it's nothing, you've been silent for more than five minutes." he stated. "Look, if I buy you hot chocolate, will you tell me?" Paul was questioning his own sanity by this point. He had absolutely no idea why he wanted to know what was troubling her, he just did and he hated the feeling she always seemed to give him. He hated it with a passion, it was confusing and new and most certainly out of his comfort zone. Paul absolutely despised all things out of his comfort zone.

"Fine," Dawn said after a few seconds of contemplating with herself. She looked back up at the boy and gave him a small smile, which to her surprise he seemed to return, although she knew that it was more than likely just a trick of the light.

"You know, you two would make a cute couple," a familiar voice commented from behind them as they lined up to get some late night hot chocolate in the surprisingly long Que. Dawn was about to completely deny this comment, her face once again the colour of a tomato, until she saw the person who'd made it.

"Roark!" She exclaimed, nudging Paul and causing him to turn around.

"It's been a while hasn't it?" Said man replied, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Man, I haven't seen you since our first meeting… Paul was it?"

"Hn," Paul said in reply.

"Yep, as cold as ever!" Roark chuckled cheerfully while Dawn joined in. Paul merely scowled and was thankful that they were finally first in line. He ordered while Dawn and Roark talked, he couldn't care less about the subject of their conversation.

"Come on troublesome," he muttered, grabbing her wrist and dragging her away.

"I'll see you another time then!" Dawn called over her shoulder. Roark smirked knowingly at her and she stuck her tongue out, managing to suppress her face from flaring up again.

"So, what was it?" Paul asked as they sat quietly on a bench overlooking a large, snow covered park on the outskirts of the city.

"Well," she began after taking a sip of the warm beverage. "I guess it kind of hurt that they didn't even think of inviting me to Kanto with them, even though May had gone over."

Paul sighed and looked up at the star filled sky, his breath visible due to the low temperature.

"But don't you want to spend Christmas with your mother?" He asked.

"Well… I guess…"

"Maybe they just didn't ask you because they knew what you'd say," he suggested, turning to look at her. Dawn gave him a smile and nodded.

"Maybe you're right… Thanks Paul," He turned away to look up at the stars. Admittedly due to the lights of the city behind them, only a few of the brighter ones were visible, but it was still beautiful. They sat on the bench for a while, and Dawn felt herself dropping off, her eyelids becoming heavy and her head beginning to lull…

She quickly sat up again in a panic as she'd accidentally rested her head on Paul's shoulder for a few seconds without realising.

"I'm so sorry!" She stuttered out, her hands forming fists as she rested them on her lap, her head bowed down.

"Troublesome girl…" he muttered almost fondly as he got up. "Let's go back, it's getting late."

"Y-yeah," Dawn agreed, standing up herself and following Paul back to the centre in a comfortable silence.

 **Well, I'm sorry, I had to get Poke and contest in there somewhere... Haha, I hope at least some of you approve. But gosh, it's getting really close to Christmas, I hope you're all having a wonderful time!**

 **~X-Ray**


	10. 3 Days to go

_3 Days to go._

Our favourite duo was once again wandering through the forest where little to no people travelled. Despite this fact, Paul regularly journeyed through it as a way to get to different towns and cities much quicker. Dawn however still hated the place; the pokemon there were a much unfriendlier and much tougher while the lack of civilization still unnerved her.

Admittedly, she was hardly as scared as she had been when they'd first set off, mostly due to the fact that she'd warmed up to Paul considerably and he made her feel so much safer. At this point, Dawn was babbling on about the Christmas presents she'd got for some friends while Paul tuned out.

Piplup, Lopunny, Quilava, Torterra and Froslass walked along side them, the five pokemon were having a conversation of their own; discussing things unbeknown to both Paul and Dawn. Both trainers' pokemon had become rather close over the passed 9 days, Paul's pokemon just enjoyed the others' company as they never really got to socialise with anyone other than in their own 'family', despite the fact that they kept their distance at first.

You see, not only did the boy's pokemon enjoy the company of others, they also enjoyed the way Paul seemed much happier while Dawn was around. The bluenette's pokemon had also begun to see how much their beloved trainer cared for Paul, they knew that she'd always been very intrigued by his stoic nature and that she'd always wanted him to open up to her.

"Just shut up," Paul grumbled, a scowl evident on his face. Dawn glared at the taller figure, her hands crossing over her chest defensively and her cheeks puffing out.

"Well excuse me Mr unsociable," She lashed out, standing her ground. Paul gave her a sideways glance, smirking at the bluenette.

"Stop being so troublesome,"

"I AM NOT TROUBLESOME!" Dawn exploded, the anger practically radiating from her skin. As the two argued, their pokemon sweat dropped, watching as their trainers fired harsh words back and forth from each other. Torterra rolled his yes and forcefully pushed Paul, causing him to fall face first into the snow.

Dawn began to laugh, her body shaking as she clutched her stomach, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. Paul immediately sat up and glared daggers at both his pokemon and the girl who was mercilessly laughing at him.

" Kyaa!" She suddenly screamed as her butt collided with the cold ground bellow. The knee length dress she was currently wearing under her white coat made her legs go numb as they made contact with the white powder.

"Shinji!" She growled dangerously, crawling over to the now smirking boy who was sitting a few feet away from her.

"Whatever is the matter my dear Dawn?" He asked innocently. The way he'd actually said her name made her cheeks turn red, yet she still glowered at him. As she came to a halt, sitting on her knees, she dumped a pile of snow atop the purple brown hair which adorned Paul's head. He looked shocked for a moment as she giggled, wisely getting away from him as quickly as possible.

The pokemon applauded Torterra's fine work as he smirked as the scene played out before him. The continent pokemon knew Paul like none of the boy's other pokemon; he knew that this girl had made a huge impact on his life, and for the better at that.

After a few more minutes of teasing and playing around, Paul decided that it was about time to get back on the road.

"We'll be in Sandgem by tomorrow, from there it'll only take you a few hours to get back to Twinleaf," he explained as Dawn looked up at him with a frown.

"What do you mean it'll only take _me,"_ she asked.

"I'm getting a ferry from Sandgem back to Unova," he said, looking down at the girl.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that!" She said with a giggle, trying her best to hide the disappointment in her voice. "So… what do you plan on doing in Unova?" She questioned.

"I only have one more badge to obtain until I have all eight," he said in a monotone, looking down at the snow below.

"So, you're going to challenge the league after?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"No, after that I'm going to make my way to Karlos. I'll be challenging the league after I obtain all of the badges there for experience reasons," he replied.

"I see." Not much else was said after this, Dawn was still pretty upset that he'd be leaving so soon, she'd gotten used to travelling with him. With a shake of her head however, she reminded herself that she had Christmas to look forward to and couldn't be sulking about anything now!

The sun had eventually begun to set and the teens decided that they'd set up camp before it got too dark. Their pokemon had long since been returned to their pokeballs and Dawn found herself feeling slightly lonely as she sat on Paul's spare jacket, gazing into the recently lit fire.

She watched it dance, illuminating the surrounding area and causing the snow around it to begin to melt.

"What's wrong?" Paul eventually asked, ceasing organising his backpack to turn and look at the bluenette as she stared absentmindedly into the fire, a frown printed onto her face.

"Wha?" She asked, blinking a couple of times as she looked towards the source of the voice. "Oh, ah. Nothing, I was just thinking about stuff," she answered with a reassuring smile. Paul shrugged and got back to sorting through his bag. He eventually pulled out his sketch pad, along with a lead pencil and rubber, before making his way over and sitting cross-legged on the other side of the fire to the girl. Dawn noticed the movement of her companion and excitedly got up to go and sit next to him.

"What are you drawing?" She questioned, leaning over to try and see what he was creating.

"Stuff," he muttered, his eyes not leaving the page.

"So, have you drawn anything else since?" She asked curiously, tugging on his black hoodie. This seemed to got his attention as his eyes jerked from the paper, his cheeks seeming to glow a light colour of red for a moment.

"Uh, I guess…" He stuttered, protectively hugging the book to his chest. Dawn giggled, enjoying his discomfort.

"So can I see them?" she inquired sweetly. He was silent for a while, watching the bluenette sceptically. The only person besides himself who'd ever had permission to look through the book was he brother, although this girl had already seen most of his pieces and it wasn't like he didn't trust her… He finally sighed in defeat, handing her the book and lying on his back, despite the snow.

Two new pictures had been added; they were both of the bluenette who was allowed to look at them. She felt her face heat up as she looked at the first one. It was of her clinging to Paul's hoodie, her head was buried into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her protectively. She shivered at the memory of the Beartic, hoping that she'd not have another experience like that for a long time.

The second one was of her standing in line, hot chocolate in hand as she happily conversed with the Oreburgh gym leader. Dawn smiled gently, returning the book to its owner.

"They're really beautiful," she complimented with a small smile, "I love them!" She then flopped back with Paul, turning her head to face him. His cheeks were still slightly red and it made her heart pound.

"Have you ever made a snow angel?" She eventually asked, beginning to wave her arms and legs, creating what would look like wings and a dress in the snow.

"No, and I'm not seven anymore, I'm seventeen," he answered, turning his face to give the girl a weird look.

"Oh come on!" She exclaimed, sitting back up and dusting the snow out of her long hair. "Just wave your arms and legs around!"

Instead of complying, he simply rolled his eyes and stood up, walking over to put his pad, rubber and pencil back. He then turned to face her, his eyebrows quirked in amusement as she sat, pouting at him with her arms crossed. She eventually lay back down, deciding to ignore his presence and continue her childish behaviour.

Paul's face contorted into a wicked smirk. He ducked down to pick up and armful of snow and walked over to the unsuspecting bluenette, he then let go of the pile, dumping it all on her face. She shrieked in surprise, sitting up abruptly and glaring at her attacker. He laughed a genuine laugh as snow covered her azure hair and coat.

She got up abruptly, making her way over to Paul, her expression stormy. Paul smirked yet he still stepped backwards, away from the girl. Suddenly, out of no where, she began to fall forward. Her defensive argument would most likely be something like 'there was a lump of snow in my way'.

Paul groaned, his eyes shut tightly as he braced for the impact, his back hitting the ground hard. He then cracked one open, glancing down at the mass of blue hair lying on his chest. He sighed, not at all feeling surprised that she'd managed to fall on him.

"Jeez, you really are a troublesome girl… But are you okay?" He asked, waiting for her to look at him.

"I uh, think so," She squeaked, her face having exploded in a bright crimson for the millionth time that week.

"Was this your idea of retaliation?" He asked with a chuckle.

"I'm so sorry!" She stuttered, making an attempt to get off without making things even more awkward than she felt they already were. Before she could move however, she felt him wrap an arm around her back and her heart sped up tenfold. "What are you…?" She asked, her hands trembling ever so slightly.

"Let's just stay like this for a while," was his reply as he looked up towards the starry sky. "It's warm." Dawn nodded slowly, finally looking up to view his face. She was honestly rather comfortable where she lay, and like he said, it was very warm.

A few minutes later, Paul noticed that her breathing had grown shallow, and when he called her name, there was no reply. He sighed, gently pushing her off of his chest and lifting her up bridle style, bringing her towards her own tent.

"Good night Troublesome," he muttered as he lay her down on her sleeping bag before making his way to his own tent.

 **Woo, another chapter done! I should be able to get the next chapter done, although there's no guarantee as it's my birthday tomorrow. I mean, I should be able to do it before bed so there's no need to worry! Still, it's a real shame this fic is coming to an end so quickly, I'm really enjoying writing it! I hope you're all enjoying it as much as me!**

 **~X-Ray**


	11. 2 Days to go

_2 Days to go._

Dawn sighed, turning over to face the boy who was lying on the bed at the other side of the room. He was facing away from her, completely ignoring her presence. She sighed again out of boredom; they'd been lying around for around an hour now, and Dawn was getting very restless.

She let out another long, frustrated sigh as she turned again onto her back. Movement could be heard from Paul as he twisted to face her, his expression dark.

"Will you stop that?!" He growled, glaring at the side of her head.

"Stop what?" She asked with a sigh.

"That annoying sighing!" He grunted, rolling his eyes and turning back over. Dawn looked over to him with a glare equally matched to his own.

"Well excuse me! I'm just completely bored because we haven't done anything since we signed into our room!" She said with an exasperated tone. She was frustrated with the plumb haired boy; he'd been like this all day and she silently wondered where the fun and caring person she'd been spending the last few days with had gone. Admittedly he had still been a little cold, although that was just Paul and she didn't really mind, she'd learned to love it.

After receiving no reply from the other end, she huffed and sighed again, mostly out of spite this time. He made a noise which highly resembled that of a growl, and Dawn smirked to herself.

"If you're so bored, why don't you just go out?!" He snapped, turning back over to stare angrily at her.

"Fine, maybe I will," Dawn sniffed, getting up out of the bed and heading for the door. She looked down in disappointment as she walked out of the room; she'd really wanted to spend the last day they had together, well, together. That was the reason she hadn't left in the first place, but his grumpy nature was all just too much for her right now.

The bluenette looked up towards the sky, her hands in her pockets as she leaned against the outside walls of the pokemon centre. Dark clouds blocked the sun from kissing the earth as a cold breeze blew throughout the town.

Dawn suddenly perked up, realising that she had yet to get a gift for Paul and she'd be able to take this opportunity to get him one. She walked away in search of the stores, all the while trying to figure out what Paul would want. She realised that she wanted to get him something useful, and something that maybe he would remember her by.

After looking around for a while, she eventually came to the pokemart. She hadn't found anything that Paul would really like in any of the other shops she'd been to and this was her last chance. She'd eventually decided on a few ultra balls; they may not have been the nicest gifts in the world, although at least she knew that they'd come in handy.

Once she'd bought them, she'd decided to wonder around the town for a while due to the fact that she doubted Paul would want her back just yet. She was also still a little mad at him for not even attempting to spend the day with her and just been grumpy the whole time.

Suddenly, in the distance she noticed a familiar mane of chin length violet coloured hair. She tilted her head in curiosity, quickening her pace a little to keep the boy in view. He pulled the hood of his black and grey hoodie over his head and shoved his hands into his pockets. Dawn simply followed, keeping a good distance and hoping that he wouldn't turn around. For some reason she got the idea that he'd only be grumpy with her if she ran up to him.

The sun was beginning to set and Christmas lights began to glow, illuminating the houses around the town. Paul simply kept his cold, grey eyes locked forward, finally coming to a halt on the outskirt of a small park by the beach. The trees surrounding the area had all been decorated with brightly lit lights, and ribbons had been tied. Dawn swore that she'd seen a few mistletoe plants dangling from branches of a few of the trees.

"Hey Paul," Dawn said quietly, grabbing onto the back of his hoodie as he stopped under on of the trees to gaze out at the few people wandering around the park this late into the evening. He turned his head around to assess the girl behind him. She looked down at the ground, her navy bangs covering her eyes.

The boy merely sighed, allowing her to stand like that for a few more momently. That was until they heard a girl giggle across from them and point up into the tree. They both followed her finger and Dawn's face immediately turned yet again, bright red. Paul merely stared, his face portraying no sign of emotion what so ever.

Above the pair hung a bunch of the mistletoe Dawn had spied before hand. The girl who had pointed it out to them grinned in anticipation.

"It's tradition you two, and you're not the only couple who's been caught out," she said mischievously, a smirk gracing her face. Paul had by now turned around to face the bluenette and he looked down at her, a frown now printed onto his face.

"You don't have to if you don't want to!" Dawn desperately, her body beginning to feel numb as he started to lean his head towards her. He stopped rather abruptly, his frown deepening and he let out another one of his almost growls. The boy then stood back up straight, swiftly turning away and storming back towards the pokemon centre.

By this time, the girl who'd pointed out the Christmas tradition was long gone. Dawn continued to stare to the place Paul had been standing, her legs finally gave way and her form crumpled to the ground. Her eyes stung and she could feel them building up with tears, although she quickly wiped the salty liquid away, burying her head in her hands.

She didn't know exactly how to feel right now, she was very relieved as well as a little disappointed but her heart also felt like it had just shattered into a million tiny pieced. All in all, the girl was completely and utterly confused. She didn't understand what all of these feelings were, and she was honestly very scared and had no idea how she should have been feeling at the time.

Eventually, she'd managed to compose herself enough to head back to the pokemon centre. She took a deep breath as she headed through the doors of the lobby and walked down the corridor to their room, she hadn't a clue what was going to happen next.

 **Yes, it pained me to write this because as much as I wanted all of the fluff, I know that the idea I have for later will be much more rewarding, so don't you worry my dear readers. And yes, I'm very glad I managed to write this despite the fact that I'm probably going to be regretting this tomorrow. Having younger siblings on Christmas does not usually end well due to the fact that you're most definitely going to be woken up at anytime before 7am. And in all honesty, any time before 10 (and that is still quite early in my eyes) I consider an ungodly hour to be up at. Not to mention I'm not exactly what one would call a 'morning person'.**

 **I hope you all have a great time whenever Christmas day is for you all!**

 **~X-Ray**


	12. 1 Day to go

_1 Day to go_

The two teens hadn't spoken a word after the whole mistletoe scene that had occurred the previous night. They'd merely gone straight to bed, and the bluenette was rather glad about it as she didn't know how she was going to face him after that.

Dawn yawned tiredly, she turned over to face the wall as the sunlight harshly stung her eyes. She groaned and finally allowed herself to crack an eye open, but only to look at the clock on the bedside table. As she flipped over and her open eye gazed upon the room, she noticed something very wrong.

In a flash, she was no longer feeling groggy and she managed to sit up, her eyes desperately scanning the opposite side of the room she was on. The bed had been neatly made up and there was absolutely no sign that anyone had been sleeping there at all. No backpack lay on the ground and the bathroom door was wide open.

She leaped out of bed, hurriedly pulling on black leggings under a pink dress as she shrugged her white coat on, forcefully dragging a hair brush through her tangled, sapphire locks. She bolted out of the door, not even bothering to make her own bed.

"Has my room mate left already?" Dawn asked the pinkette quickly who was standing behind the orange counter.

"Yes, he checked out about twenty minutes ago," she replied, receiving a quick thank you from Dawn as she sprinted outside towards the harbour. She stood on her tiptoes, scanning the heads of the people buying ferry tickets.

"Purple hair, purple hair, purple hair," she muttered to herself, dodging in and out of the crowd in search of Paul. "Please Arceus," she begged, now resorting to using her elbows as the mass of people increased.

Finally, a shock of purple brown hair caught her eyes, she dashed around the citizens, only stopping when she'd managed to crash into the back of the boy.

"Watch it," he growled, turning around to see who had so rudely ran into him, his dark grey eyes widened however when they met azure ones staring wide eyed back at him.

"Paul…" She managed to choke out, finally stepping away from him. She looked down at the ground, a light pink hue grazing her cheeks. "Why did you… why did you leave without so much as a good bye?" she asked, looking back up at him. The boy for once didn't know what to say, he was at a loss for words as he saw the tears dancing in the corner of her eyes, threatening to fall at any moment.

"I-I didn't… I mean," he stuttered, stepping away from her cautiously, the feeling of guilt washing over him.

"Here," she muttered, reaching into her bag and pulling out a wrapped parcel. "If you're leaving already, then I should probably give you this," she chuckled bitterly, refusing to look him directly in the eye.

"Thank you…" he mumbled, gently taking the package from her small hands and putting it into his backpack. "Although… I haven't got you anything," he added guiltily. _Why am I feeling so guilty?! It's not like I did anything wrong, and I never asked her to get me anything!_ he growled to himself. The ferry's horn sounded and the bustling crowd began moving in its direction.

"Well, I have to go," he stated, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking down at the ground. _But why is it that I don't want to?_

"Thank you, so much." Dawn said with a bow, allowing her bangs to fall over her eyes. "I had a lot of fun, even though you were sometimes grumpy." She chuckled, "I learned a lot, and I'd have never been able to do it without you," her voice cracked and she decided to shut up at that moment, not wanting to break down in front of Paul.

"Don't mention it," he said with a sigh, "And.. I- I had fun too," he added, a small smile gracing his lips as he turned around to walk towards the boat. Dawn watched him go, an idea suddenly springing to her mind.

"Paul!" She yelled, running after him and grabbing the back of his hoodie. "Here, I- I want you to keep this," she said quietly, once he'd turned to give her a questioning look. She grabbed his hand and placed the ribbon she'd won at Hearthome in it. "I want you to remember me, so here," she explained. Paul smirked.

"How could anyone forget you? You're way too troublesome," he said with a chuckle, reaching out to ruffle her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut, grimacing at his words. "But, I can't keep this. You'll need it," he said, trying to hand it back to her.

"No!" She exclaimed, "You always seemed to forget me, and I don't want that!" Paul winced, another wave of guilt crashing over him.

"I never forgot you," he said quietly before turning back around. Dawn's eyes widened and she stared at his back in shock. His words replayed over, and over again in her head.

"Why don't you… why don't you stay with me and my mum for Christmas?" She then suggested shyly, tugging on the back of his hoodie.

"Because I can't," he replied sharply, pulling away from her and hurrying over to the ferry. _What the hell are these feelings?!_ He growled inwardly to himself. Dawn stared for a moment but soon turned and ran, covering her eyes with her arm as the tears finally began to fall. She didn't want him to leave, she wanted him with her. She needed him with her.

Dawn sat under a tree of the outskirts of route 201, the sun was setting and she'd been sitting with her knees pulled into her chest and her head in her hands for most of the day. She knew that she'd have to leave sooner or later to get back to Twinleaf before it got really late, although she couldn't bring herself to do so.

Suddenly, someone forcefully grabbed her by the shoulders and began to shake her senseless. She began to squeal, her eyes opening wide with fright as she hurriedly removed her hands from her face. She was met with stormy grey eyes and a mass of violet hair, her breath hitched at the sight, although the expression on Paul's face was murderous and it made her cower down in fear.

"You idiot!" He snarled, having yet to cease his shaking, "Something could have happened to you! I turned away for one moment and you're gone! You stupid girl, you should have waited and I would have come back for you okay?! I changed my mind!"

At that moment, she felt a pair of lips fiercely crash down upon her own and her eyes widened. _Paul's kissing me_. She screamed inside her head. She eventually closed her eyes, melting into his body as they embraced while surprisingly he hadn't pulled away until he was short of breath.

"You stupid, stupid girl," he muttered, holding her forehead against his own. He then gave her a quick peck on the lips, beginning to trail kisses all around her mouth, "troublesome," _kiss,_ "annoying," _kiss, "stupid," kiss._ The process continued for a good few minutes; Paul threw an insulting nickname at her between each peck.

Dawn was far too dumbfounded by this point to be able to even process what he was saying. _He's kissing me._ Was the only thing she could hear as her mind had completely shut down, only running on automatic as she accepted each and every touch of his soft lips as they sent shivers down her spine.

"You troublesome girl, why is it that you of all people make me feel this way?!" He said exasperatedly after a while, his forehead once again resting upon hers. "I don't understand," he muttered, bringing a hand over to pull her into him, giving her a warm hug. Dawn sighed in content, snuggling into his hoodie and looking up at his face.

"So, you're staying with me for Christmas?!" She asked rather excitedly.

"I thought I just made that much obvious," he replied with a chuckle, finally standing up and pulling her with him. "I suppose we'll have to go now before it gets too late," he said, taking note of the dark sky. Dawn nodded, following him as he began to trudge through the snow, she couldn't help a faint blush crawling up her face as she smiled happily, hurrying to walk next to her plumb haired idiot.

 **Gah, I'm so so so so so so so sorry that I didn't get this out one time! You see, on Christmas day I was with my family since six in the morning (little sisters… I really don't recommend them if you value your beauty sleep) and then after, we went out to a friend's party and stayed until around 11. Now as you may have guess, I was rather tired by then so I pretty much collapsed on my bed and fell straight to sleep once I'd got home. Now, yesterday the wifi was down so I couldn't post then, no matter how many times we restarted the router it just wouldn't cooperate, so you can imagine how irritating that was for me, knowing I'd be extra late, and with such a feelsy chapter as well :c Well, I am truly sorry, and the next one will be out very shortly :D**

 **~X-Ray**


	13. 0 Days to go

_0 Days to go._

Johanna Berlitz smiled, making her way down stairs and into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the two teenagers were obviously still sound asleep up stairs. Dawn had arrived back home at eight the previous night, bringing a boy called Paul Shinji along with her. Johanna was obviously elated and accepted him into her home with open arms. That wasn't the first time she'd heard of the boy however; Dawn had complained about him all throughout her travels around Sinnoh with her original travelling buddies, Ash and Brock. She'd smirked knowingly every time; her daughter would never go on about anyone like that unless she unknowingly had special feelings for them.

 **Flash Back.**

 _There was a knock at the door and Johanna went to answer, already knowing who it'd be. To her surprise however, she was met with not only the face of her sapphire eyed daughter, but also another, more unfamiliar person._

 _"Mum, this is Paul," Dawn explained with a blush, causing her mother to smirk. She smiled warmly up at the boy, and he gave her a quick smile back. "Would it be alright if he stayed with us for Christmas?" Her daughter asked nervously. Johanna grinned, pulling both teens into a bone crushing hug. Paul's eyes widened while Dawn grinned back and returned the squeeze._

 _"Of course he can!" She exclaimed, shutting the front door behind them to keep the cold air out. "Just go and set up the spare bedroom dear, I'll start making dinner!"_

 **End Flash Back.**

Johanna shook her head, smiling to herself as she began to stir the pancake mix. Today was Christmas morning, and so she decided to let the other two sleep in a while longer. She was rather excited as this would be the first Christmas in a very long time that her and her daughter had spent with another person.

Footsteps could be heard rushing down the stairs, and a few seconds later, a very excited Dawn poked her head around the door, her hair a mess and her pyjamas still on.

"Mum, it's Christmas!" She yelled excitedly, practically jumping up and down with the excess amount of energy she seemed to currently possess. Johanna chuckled; every Christmas Dawn got like this and it was near impossible to calm her down.

"I'll go wake up Paul!" she exclaimed, dashing out of the kitchen and back up the stairs.

"I wouldn't… never mind," her mother said with a sigh, shaking her head and smiling, feeling awfully sorry for the boy in question.

Dawn slammed the spare bedroom door open, rushing in and looking down at Paul. He looked extremely peaceful when he slept, and Dawn was suddenly questioning whether she should just leave him and wait. She then shook her head fiercely, her face turning slightly red.

"No, this is Christmas!" She said to herself enthusiastically, pumping her fist in the air. "Paul," she called gently, shaking his shoulder. He grunted but continued to keep his eyes closed. "It's Christmas Paul!" She said a little louder, becoming frustrated quickly.

Suddenly, his arm snaked around her waist and she was pulled onto the bed with him. She let out a shrill squeak, her face exploding in colour as she was pressed against his chest, his firm grip holding her in place.

"What do you want, troublesome?" he mumbled, his eyes still remaining shut. He waited for a few moments, yet there was no reply. He eventually opened an eye, squinting down at the bluenette. He smirked as he saw her beet red face and wide eyes. "Come on, speak up silly girl," he said gruffly, his smirk widening as her cheeks darkened.

"It's- it's Christmas," she finally managed, wriggling in his grasp. Paul sighed, his grip faltering as he allowed her to get up.

"Fine, I'll be down in a moment," he sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "But only for you, _my love,_ " He added, emphasising the last two words. Dawn's eyes widened and her previously recovered face turned as red as his Magmortar once again. Paul laughed whole heartedly, loving how it was so easy to make her feel so embarrassed, although he'd never admit to anyone that he thought it was rather adorable as well. "Nah, I think I'll stick with troublesome, it suits you better," he stated matter-of-factly, sitting up in his bed while Dawn stuck her tongue out at him and scampered back out of the room.

A few minutes later, all three people were sitting around the Berlitz's dining table eating a breakfast consisting of pancakes and waffles, topped with a mass of maple syrup, ice-cream and strawberries. They talked about a lot of things, like when the two started travelling together and what they were doing the passed few days and Dawn's recent contests. Even Paul contributed a lot to the conversation, telling the two girls all about the Unova region and what badges he's earned.

They eventually moved to the living room and by the sparkling Christmas tree which had been decorated beautifully by Johanna and her pokemon. The woman had made everyone put their gifts under it the night before as this was the tradition her and her Daughter lived by. Dawn had received quite a few from her other friends, like Kenny, Barry, Ash, Brock and the girls.

Both Paul and Dawn had received matching blue and white woollen scarfs from Johanna, she explained that she'd hurriedly made Paul's the night he'd arrived, and chastised her daughter for not telling her about his arrival sooner. The presents made Dawn blush, as always, although even Paul went slightly red, and Johanna laughed, continue to tease the two.

Both Dawn and her mother received gifts from Paul, much to their surprise.

"I got them when I went out to grab supplies yesterday," he explained as they began to unwrap the presents. Johanna received a big box of chocolates while Dawn received a beautiful, purple poffin case with delicate black embroidery. The girls hugged him thankfully, and he opened the present Dawn had given him the previous day. He gave her a quick smile, knowing that the ultra balls he'd received would certainly be useful.

"Hey Paul," Dawn said once they'd all unwrapped everything. "Didn't you get something off Reggie?" She asked. Paul sighed, wishing that the girl had forgotten about that. Unwillingly, he reached for the grey backpack which was lying on the sofa and removed the rather large gift.

He began to unwrap it, wincing as the gift began to take shape before them. He held it up with a sigh, making an attempt to hide the writing from the mother and daughter. It was a knitted black sweater, with the words 'number 1 bro' weaved along the torso area in gold. Dawn tried to stifle a giggle while Johanna gave him a warm smile.

"Your brother must love you very much," she said kindly, taking the sweater to admire the knitting skills Reggie obviously possessed.

"A little too much," Paul sighed with a roll of his eyes. Dawn grinned at him, poking him in the cheek.

"And you love him too!" She stated.

"Now that's debatable," the boy replied with a smirk. A few minutes later, Johanna had begun to prepare lunch. She suggested that the other two go out to get some air for an hour or so, and that's what they did.

"I know where we could go," Paul said, heading down the path and not bothering to wait for a reply. Dawn obediently followed, but stayed a small distance behind him. She realised that this was the first time they'd properly been alone after he'd kissed her the previous day, sure they'd walked back to Twinleaf together, but that didn't count because her mind had been in shambles. The colour of red slowly began to creep onto her face as she looked down at the ground, not daring to say a word.

"Keep up," he said as they walked through the various streets of Twinleaf town, seeing very few people on their way; it was Christmas after all. They soon arrived at the small forest to the south of Twinleaf, where the lake quietly sat in a clearing, completely frozen over as a couple of families joyfully skated over it with their pokemon.

Paul turned around and reached for one of Dawn's small hands, she squeaked in surprise, her face flushing again as she looked up at his face. He smiled affectionately down at her, pulling her along to a destination unknown to her.

"You've been awfully quiet," he commented as they stopped beneath a rather large tree. She shrugged, still refusing to say anything as she was scared she'd make a fool of herself. "So, Reggie and I used to come to this place while we were kids because our parents always used to rent a cabin out here. Basically, we found this tree and thought it was pretty awesome," He explained. Dawn giggled, finding it weird to imagine Paul as a kid, climbing trees.

Paul then proceeded to grab Dawn by the waist and haul her onto the first branch. She graciously accepted his help and waited for him to climb up with her.

"Get near to the top," He explained, beginning to climb himself. "And don't fall or your mother will kill me!" Dawn giggled at his remark.

"No need to worry!" She exclaimed with a grin, following him up.

"Please don't say that," he groaned, deciding to climb a few branches down from her so that if she was to fall, he'd catch her. Soon, they got near to the top and had to stop, due to the fact that the other branches were out of their reach.

"It must be here," Paul muttered to himself, sitting on the branch and making his way to the trunk. "Come here troublesome," he called, suddenly disappearing into the tree. Dawn followed, gasping as she found herself inside the trunk which had been hollowed out around that area to form a little room. "It was less cramped when my brother and I were kids," he chuckled.

Dawn blushed, realising the close proximity the two were currently in. She pulled her knees into her chest and looked down at the ground, not daring to look the boy who was sitting with his legs crossed opposite her in the eyes.

"You've been acting weirdly since we left the house," Paul observed, shuffling himself over so he was sitting adjacent to her. "Care to enlighten me with your problems?" Dawn shook her head, a small frown creasing her face.

"Nothing's wrong, in fact, it's all perfect. It's just that I'm not used to this," she explained, motioning around her with her arm. Paul smirked, pulling her into him and forcing her to look into his eyes, he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before sighing and wrapping his other arm around her body as well.

"Well troublesome girl, I suggest you get used to this," he snickered as she hugged back.

"You're right," she giggled, nuzzling lovingly into his chest. "Although… you're going back to Unova tomorrow." she muttered sadly. Paul was silent for a moment, he simply looked at the wall of bark opposite him, deep in thought.

"Well…" he started, "Maybe you could come with me; you could compete in the contests over there, I know you've done Kanto, Johto, Hoen and for course, Sinnoh. So why not Unova?" Dawn frowned again; she really didn't see why she shouldn't.

"I suppose I could," she finally said, pulling away so that she could look at his face and give him a huge grin. She then took a hold of his face, bringing her lips forcefully down upon his. This time it was Paul's turn to be surprised, although he began to willingly kiss back within a few seconds, wrapping his arms around her back and brining her closer.

Dawn eventually, unwillingly pulled away. She gave him a kiss on the nose before she began to head towards the opening and climb down the tree.

"We'd better go now or Mum's gonna be worried!" She called, skipping the last few branches and leaping down. "Last one home's a rotten Exeggcute!" she yelled, dashing off into the trees. Paul rolled his eyes, hurrying after her; she could be such a child at times, but that was one of the reasons why the boy loved her.

 **Well, that's a wrap folks! I truly hoped you liked the story, despite the fact that some chapters were out kinda late hehe. I thank all of you for the wonderful reviews and support, and I give a special thanks to Tropicallight for continually supporting the story, but also to anyone else who'd stuck with it since the beginning. I love you all and appreciate every follow, favourite, review and visitor!**

 **I hope I'll be seeing you all again some time soon, and I truly do hope that you all found the fic entertaining and fluffy! I wish you all the best for the new year, and I hope that you all had a very merry Christmas, just like Paul and Dawn!**

 **I thank you all very much!**

 **~X-Ray**


End file.
